Isn't Life Juicy?
by Aienkien-Jitsuni
Summary: [ AU ] [ InuKag x SanMir ] Romance, Drama, Heartaches, and Smoothies – Lessons in Relationships and of Love. All it takes are a couple of teenage employees working in a smoothie shop. Who knew life could be so juicy? R&R. ON HIATUS FOR NOW!
1. Prologue & Just Add Smoothies

**Fanfiction Summary: **AU -- An Inuyasha & Kagome and Sango and Miroku pairing fanfiction. Romance, Drama, Heartaches, and Smoothies – Lessons in Relationships and of Love. All it takes are a couple of teenage employees working in a smoothie shop. Who knew life could be so juicy? R&R

**Author's Note: **_Last Updated on February 19th, 2006 -- _Well I haven't touched this fanfiction in such a long time, so I had to reread everything in order for me to continue writing this story. While I was reading, I found a lot of mistakes so I've decided to repost this chapter -- along with reposting the other chapter. The prologue and the first chapter are ridiculously long, so maybe I'll shorten them. Anyway, I hope you enjoy reading this as much as I have enjoyed writing this!

**Disclaimers: **I do not own InuYasha or any of these characters. Don't sue me or I'll have to get a job working at a smoothie shop as well, aha.

* * *

A n I n u Y a s h a F a n f i c t i o n

**Isn't Life Juicy?**

_An Alternate Universe Pairing Fanfiction_

Kagome & InuYasha – Sango & Miroku

**By Aienkien-Jitsuni**

* * *

Isn't Life Juicy?  
**PROLOGUE **  
_Just Add Smoothies_

_They gazed into each other's eyes – his were a brilliant shade of amber, while hers were a dark chocolate brown. He suddenly grabbed her hands and laced his fingers with hers. She tried to pull away but their hands were entwined, and deep inside she knew she didn't want to let go. He tucked her stray strands of long raven hair behind her ear, while she moved closer to his face until her lips lingered over his. Then they both kissed each other passionately, unaware of their surroundings, the crowds, and the people – forgetting about everything and everyone around them except for themselves and for each other. They were off in their worlds, drowning in each other. Their regrets, the mistakes, and the words exchanged faded away into showers of kisses. This event of heartache was a tragic story of romance, covered up behind what seemed like ordinary public affection. Their kisses told the tale of one heart holding on and of another heart letting go -- and yet they didn't care at all about the witnesses who saw this event take place._

"Sango, do you see that?" asked Kagome, nudging her friend -- who was too busy looking through the 75-percent off clothes rack to notice.

"See what?" Sango answered uninterested, her mind considering a pink blouse that was at a decent price because of the sale. Kagome shook her head in disbelief and forced Sango's pink eye shadowed eyes to get a look at what Kagome was so interested in.

"Disgusting! You'd think they'd get a room." Sango snorted to herself, wondering what in the world possessed some people these days.

"No, that would be the decent thing to do." Kagome said sarcastically, "Making out in public…please! Atleast have some mercy on the innocent, who'd rather gouge their eyes out then watch couples like that suck face. My retinas are burning by seeing such a stupid couple lusting after each other. Argh!"

Kagome wrinkled her nose in disgust but really she was wishing she were in that girl's shoes. Ever since she was a little girl she's wanted to have _the_ perfect romance – a knight in shining armor to sweep her off her feet and take her away to the castle and live happily ever after. She decided this when she was 7 years old, right after her mom told her the story of how she and her father met. It was like one of those things that you read out of a romance novel. But after 9 years of waiting around for the perfect guy she knew her dreams would never come true. Kagome was tired of hearing about on and off relationships, the breakups and the make ups, of listening to girls who are love sick one week and then a week or two later are in a heartbroken mess of tears. She's also had her share of boys and admirers, knowing fully well that they would never work out. Basically Kagome had already given up on the idea of love, romance, and of boys – why take a chance when you can get your heart broken? Kagome liked her heart to remain whole, thank you very much -- and until she met the perfect guy, she wasn't going to waste her heart on a stupid high school relationship. So Kagome shared her pain and teenage girl angst with Sango, who also understood that relationships were just a different form of a living hell. To Sango, they were a pain in the ass and shouldn't be bothered with -- and that was that. It was inevitable that they would become best friends instantly because of their common ideas on love and relationships.

"Come on Kagome, let's get out of here. That couple making out over there is definitely making me sick to the stomach. Besides, these clothes here are way too girly for me. Let's go try that new boutique that opened up near the food court!" exclaimed Sango as she walked away from the store. Kagome gave one more longing look at the couple and quickly shook her head and forgot about them.

Despite Sango's fashion sense she was glad to have her as a best friend.

* * *

The two girls walked out of the little boutique, heads hanging down in disappointment. They weren't carrying any shopping bags, despite spending the whole day at the mall. Every girl knows spending a whole day at the mall without buying a thing was a waste of time -- and in that moment, that's exactly how they felt.

"Did you see that cute little blue strapless dress? If only I had some cash on me!" whined Kagome, collapsing onto one of the many available benches that were all over the mall. Sango plunked down right next to her.

"And that amazing pink eye shadow and eyeliner! I wanted to get it so bad!" complained Sango as she crossed her arms defiantly. Kagome gave her an exasperated look.

"Sango, are you crazy? You have tons and tons of pink eye shadow and eyeliner. They're all the same, no matter what you say." Said Kagome patting her friend on the shoulder. Sango lightly slapped her hand away.

"No they aren't! That eye shadow was definitely more pinker, and that eye liner no doubt defines better than mine does." Said Sango matter-of-factly. Kagome smiled while Sango pouted even more.

"If we only had some money! Face it Kagome, we are just flat out broke. It's pathetic really." Said Sango, now putting her elbows on her knees and her hands to her face. Kagome stood up and leaned against the bench.

"What can we do though?" sighed Kagome thinking up the many get-rich schemes she tried in her mind. Hmm – a penguin, tons of ramen, coffee drinks, and pink striped umbrellas? Nope, that wasn't going to work. No matter how hard she tried all she could come up with were these outrageous schemes that would never work.

While Kagome was off in her own world, Sango looked down and found a bright yellow flyer. She picked up the piece of paper and an in instant her disappointed frown turned into an all out grin.

"Smoothies!" shouted Sango excitedly, like she just had found the answer to the meaning of life. Kagome looked at her and laughed.

"Trust me, Sango. I already thought of that! But if we're going to use smoothies to make some money we also need gallons of pudding and an empty pool and a raft…but never mind that. I already thought it through and it's never going to work." explained Kagome, but Sango looked at her like she was crazy.

"What are you talking about, Kagome? I was talking about getting a job at the local smoothie shop that's just about to open." said Sango, giving Kagome a strange look.

"Oh, I totally knew that. What did you think I was talking about?" shrugged off Kagome nervously.

"See here? It says 'Looking for Hip Teenagers to Help Make Smoothies! Employment Opportunities Available!'" Sango exclaimed, practically stuffing the flyer in front of Kagome because she was so excited. Kagome grabbed the bright yellow paper and looked at it.

"Sango, do you think we can get the job? We have no smoothie-making experience whatsoever." Kagome said thoughtfully. Sango snatched back the paper and pointed towards a small line at the bottom of the page.

"It also says 'No Experience Needed! Enthusiastic Help Wanted! Working Wages Fair! -- First Come, First Served!' Think about it, we have no experience, we're enthusiastic, and we're hip teenagers! As long as we're the first ones who apply, I'm sure we'll get the job! Before you know it, we'll earn a lot of money and we'll no longer be broke!" shouted Sango. Kagome tried to calm Sango down because she was now drawing stares from people.

"Sango, I don't know…I mean, smoothies aren't my favorite and…" Kagome said slowly, unsure if this was going to work or not. Sango sighed and pointed towards the boutique, which was displaying the elegant blue dress that Kagome had wanted earlier.

"Kagome. Look at that dress. Just add smoothies and that dress could be yours!" whispered Sango, knowing that this would get to her friend. Kagome thought about it for a second. She suddenly stood up and started running.

"What the…? Kagome where are you going?" Sango called out to Kagome, who was almost on the other side of the mall because she was running so fast. Kagome stopped and gave Sango an exaggerated look.

"What do you mean? I'm going to the smoothie shop to get us an application! First come, first served remember? Now hurry up!" shouted Kagome. As soon as she was done she started sprinting again.

Sango just shook her head in disbelief and ran after her friend.

_

* * *

Breathe in…Breathe out…  
Breathe in…Breathe out…  
Concentrate, Do not lose your focus._

_Forget about everything and anything around you…  
Forget about where you are or the settings_  
_That are around you. _

Do not let that girl make you lose your focus! No matter how pretty she is,  
Or how amazingly impressive she is…Wow, that is so sexy.

"Challenger One was unable to defeat Challenger Two! Challenger Two wins this battle!" exclaimed the Tai Kwon Do Master, Kiuchi-sensei. Miroku lay there, unable to move because of disbelief.

'_Did I just…lose_?' thought Miroku as he got up mechanically and bowed down to the challenger. He looked right into her dark brown eyes, which stood out against the pink eyeliner she wore. And then in an instant those eyes were gone – class was over.

Miroku looked around frantically for the girl that had just defeated him. He caught a glimpse of her dark brown hair that was tied up in a high ponytail and before he could even say his infamous pickup line his teacher stopped him.

"Now, Houshi-san, I know it's hard to get beat by a girl. You're probably devastated right now. But you must understand that she has had more experience than you. She is one of the best students that I have had the chance to train and she is very talented. One day, you'll be as good as her and maybe even better -- because I know that you are capable of…" lectured Kiuchi-sensei. Unfortunately his words were wasted, as Miroku paid more attention to the beautiful girl walking out of the classroom and less attention to what his sensei was saying. He quickly interrupted his master.

"Kiuchi-sensei! What was her name?" asked Miroku in a rush. The teacher looked at him in surprise but did not wonder why he asked such a thing.

"Her name is Sango, Sango Taijiya." answered the old man.

"Sango…" Miroku repeated to himself. He liked her name.

"Gomen nesai, sensei but I must get going or I will be late for another engagement. Please forgive me for my rude behavior. I'm so glad that I have met you and that you are my master. I'm sure I'll learn a lot from you. I'll see you next week!" Miroku said all of this very quickly, barely spacing out the words so that it was hard for the sensei to make out what he had said.

After bowing to his sensei and muttering his apologies, he quickly ran out of the classroom and left his teacher dumbfounded.

* * *

There she was. He had finally found her. Despite the crowds of classmates and students that separated them, she somehow stood out from the rest of the crowd. She was leaning against her locker, staring out into the window that displayed the blossoming cherry trees that were outside on the campus of the school. She was beautiful. 

Miroku immediately made his way through the groups of people – occasionally getting some high-fives and pats on the backs from guys and giggles and whispers from girls. He finally reached his destination: Sango Taijiya.

It was here he finally got a good look at her. He studied her up and down. She had dark brown hair that was now loosely tied up in a low ponytail, and she had a beautiful pair of eyes that matched the shade of her hair when it was in the light. They were lined and made up in pink eye shadow and eyeliner that made her big brown eyes stand out. You could see her confidence in her posture and the strength in the build of her body.

Yet, Miroku sensed a presence of loneliness. It was faint, but it was definitely there. Miroku wanted her to never feel lonely ever again, to never feel like she was all alone because he was there for her.

He literally was there for her – and for her breasts.

It was only a slight graze of his hand, but it was enough for her to snap her head back and turn a slight shade of pink. Her wide brown eyes were filled with disgust, disbelief, and fury. In a moment of violent rage, she did all she could to strangle the guy.

"HENTAI!"  
**'_Smack_!_'_**

This was the moment, according to Miroku, where he fell in love with Sango Taijiya.

* * *

Sango stood over the poor guy, who fell to the ground from the force of the impressive smack (he had a red handprint mark on his face to prove it). She chuckled to herself and smiled triumphantly as she turned to walk away from the scene. The whole school was practically silent as she made her way (well the way was practically made for her as they separated, afraid to get in her way) through the students. The girls' mouths dropped in awe and guys' eyes were wide in astonishment.

As soon as she left they all broke out in excited whispers and chatter. Of course they were too busy gossiping to notice the paper that fell out of Sango's brown messenger bag, which landed right on Miroku – who laid there unconscious with a hopeless, lecherous smile on his face.

"I'm in love!" proclaimed Miroku to his hanyou friend. The half-human half-dog demon gave him his usual I-don't-even-know-why-I'm-best-friends-with-you look. InuYasha sighed to himself and rolled his eyes.

"Who's the lucky girl who is honored with the feelings and heart of the greatest pervert in Shikon no Tama High history? And…what the hell happened to your face?" asked InuYasha, tilting his head a little and wondering how a red handprint mark got on the lecher's face.

Miroku's silly grin grew wider as he just replied simply, "The girl that I'm in love with, she slapped me! She's crazy about me, you know. Her name is Sango, Sango Taijiya!"

InuYasha couldn't believe his dog demon ears, which were very much believable all the time and very accurate considering the fact that he had canine hearing.

"You WHAT? You love 'The Girl Exterminator'? Listen Miroku, her smack might have knocked your sense out of you, but she's not called 'The Girl Exterminator' for nothing. She's the toughest girl to be with! Literally. She's really strong and she's known to be the best Tai Kwon Do fighter -- undefeated even!" explained InuYasha. But despite his efforts, he was definitely not getting through the hopelessly in love lecher. InuYasha was getting impatient.

"MIROKU! GET IT THROUGH YOUR THICK HEAD!" InuYasha shouted as he punched Miroku. But the pervert seemed immune to pain at the moment, as the smile on his face remained.

"Smoothies!" said Miroku as his grin got even wider. InuYasha just stared at him, thinking that he really _was_ crazy. Then he inched away from him with his lunch tray because his smile made him look maniacal. It took a lot to scare a half-demon, and InuYasha was scared.

"What the hell are you talking about?" questioned InuYasha. Miroku took out a piece of folded paper. He unfolded it carefully and gave it to his friend. InuYasha snatched it out of his hand and looked it over quickly and found out that it was a job application.

"So your 'love' is applying for a smoothie making job. Big deal." said InuYasha nonchalantly as he continued eating his lunch. Miroku's face dropped the smile and instantly turned into a look of shock, like he couldn't believe how blind InuYasha was to the brilliant opportunity that was right in front of them.

"Big deal. BIG DEAL? Of course it's a big deal! Obviously she was applying for a smoothie job that needed employees!" stated Miroku, like it was the most obvious thing in the world.

"Well duh. So what?" InuYasha said uninterested. Shock and amazement still remained on his friend's face.

"Well isn't it obvious! In order to be with my love, I must go apply for this job!" exclaimed Miroku, practically shouting it to himself. Then he looked at InuYasha with a mischievous glint in his deep indigo eyes. "And my friend, you are applying with me."

"NANI? What for? You can make smoothies just fine without me." said InuYasha, reluctant to participate in anything that had to do with one of Miroku's schemes -- and a smoothie job for that matter. Miroku chuckled to himself and laid a hand on InuYasha's shoulder.

"Ah, my dear friend. You truly have a one-track mind don't you? Of course you can do just fine without a job since you are one of the wealthiest kids in this school. But I know that you love to rebel against your father and embarrass your older brother – who'd think very lowly of you working at a local smoothie shop! Think of the possibilities!" Then Miroku paused for a moment. " …Not to mention, it can help you forget about _you know who_. It would keep you busy so that you'd stop thinking about her! C'mon what do you say?" explained Miroku, knowing fully well that InuYasha would agree to his idea.

InuYasha considered the idea and finally gave in -- but then a thought crossed his mind.

"Eh, what do you need me for anyway? I'm sure you can manage fine dealing with this Taijiya girl." inquired InuYasha, curious of why Miroku would need someone there in the presence of one girl. If he could name anyone that never had girl trouble whatsoever, it'd be Miroku.

Miroku had the best pick up lines and has been with so many girls that InuYasha had lost count. He's gotten out of many typical girl problem situations and has gotten into so many girls' houses that it was ridiculous. His wit, humor, and his intellect – along with his 'cursed' groping hands – made him a lethal weapon to girls everywhere. InuYasha knew that he had broken probably more than half of the girls' that attended Shikon no Tama High hearts. But InuYasha knew the truth. People had always thought that the 'Playboy' Miroku was just another heartless guy that was out for one thing – and half of it was true. The 'Real' Miroku had a kind heart and was always after just one thing – The One. InuYasha had always thought that it was a stupid weakness of his, but really the pervert was just a hopeless romantic. InuYasha didn't understand it but every time Miroku was with a girl he always found something wrong with her, and every time Miroku had to break that girl's heart. Deep down inside, it broke his own heart – to get your hopes up so high, only to get let down like that. Because this happened so many times, it had made his azure eyes a little sadder -- so much so that it turned them into a shade of a sad, dull dark indigo.

But despite his friend's problems, InuYasha still wondered why Miroku needed him. Miroku could handle any girl with a smile, even if his heart was broken into pieces.

Miroku smiled sheepishly and then looked down, studying the lunch table trying to find his words.

"Well uh…this…Sango…s-she's kind of a challenge you see…I need, well I guess…see…I need moral support." Miroku said uncertainly, looking at InuYasha with a small nervous smile. InuYasha placed both of his hands on Miroku's shoulders, shaking him gently with each word he said.

"Miroku. How. Bad. Is. It?" InuYasha said, emphasizing each word. Miroku looked away, his eyes looking anywhere but InuYasha, avoiding him and avoiding the truth.

"Tell. Me." InuYasha tried again, keeping his voice steady. Miroku finally stared him directly into his amber eyes and then sighed depressingly.

"I couldn't even use my favorite pick up line! I couldn't say anything at all! I just stood there. What am I supposed to do!" cried out Miroku desperately as he buried his head in his hands. InuYasha chuckled to himself quietly to see his perverted little friend getting so wound up over a girl. But love could do that to you and InuYasha knew it from experience. Finally he took a deep breath and agreed.

"Hai." said InuYasha simply. Miroku raised his head from his eyebrows, confused. InuYasha glared at him.

"I said yes! I'm agreeing to your stupid plan. Not only because I'll enjoy seeing the look on Sesshomaru's face when he finds out, but to also help me from never seeing this pitiful state of Miroku Houshi ever again. AND you _don't_ have to worry about me, I'm not in love with her anymore anyway." Both InuYasha and Miroku knew the last part was a lie but they wished so much for it to be true that they pretended and went along with it anyway.

"Now excuse me as I put soap in my eyes to rid me of this horrible image." joked InuYasha, trying to cover up the lie he had just said and to make Miroku feel better. He was relieved that it worked as he saw Miroku's crazy grin reappear on his face.

"PERFECT! I knew you would see it my way. My plan is going to work, just you wait! First I'll merely bump into her by mistake in between class periods so she'll notice me…then we'll apply for the job…when we start working together we'll get to know each other. Then all you have to do is just add smoothies and BAM she'll fall instantly in love with me! It's a full proof recipe of a perfect romance and then we'll plan for the marriage and then our children… " rambled on Miroku with his so-called master plan of getting Sango Taijiya to fall in love with him. Poor InuYasha was forced to listen to every word of it.

Tired of listening to Miroku's jabbering he started making origami shapes out of Sango's job application out of sheer boredom, without Miroku noticing (for he was too into his own world – plotting and scheming away). After making a paper swan, a paper dog, a paper flower, and a paper penguin he got tired of the piece of paper and threw it over his shoulders.

Miroku, who was just about to finish up his blabbering, realized what InuYasha did and stared at him with a horror-struck look on his face. "Do you realize what you have just done? That is the first thing that my love has given to me!"

"You…you can't be serious?" But he was. InuYasha watched in utter amazement as he saw his best friend jump off of his chair and dive for the crumpled up piece of paper.

The pervert, now in love, was hopeless.

_

* * *

To Be Continued…_

* * *

**Author's Note: **Well what did you think? Pretty long for a prologue -- but I needed to include a lot of information for the next chapter. I love the ending! Just imagining Miroku diving for a piece of paper…well, let me tell you it was hard not to laugh when I was writing that!

**Please don't forget to review!  
**I'm open-minded and comments and positive  
criticism are welcome, though flames will not be accepted.

**_Until next chapter!_ **-- **AK-J.**


	2. When Life Gives You Lemons & Part I

**Last Chapter on Isn't Life Juicy: **Kagome Higurashi and Sango Taijiya are facing money problems – what a better solution than to work at a new smoothie shop that is about to open? Miroku Houshi, Shikon no Tama High School's pervert and playboy, has fallen in love with Sango during his Tai Kwon Do class! Due to his failed attempt to charm her – because of his bad habit of groping and lechery – he has decided to apply for the same smoothie job that Sango is applying for (he found her application when he woke up from his unconscious state because of Sango's smack). The love struck lecher has even convinced the hanyou, InuYasha Takahashi, to apply for the job as well, just in case the monk has trouble with this girl that he's fallen for. Oh, fate is definitely going to have fun bringing these teenagers together when working in the same smoothie shop!

**  
Author's Note:** _Updated Feburary 19th, 2006 --- _Okay, so I've decided to split this chapter into two parts. This chapter was way too long for a person to read in one sitting, especially since there was so much information about each character to take in! Hopefully this makes it a lot easy for the readers! Now I present to you the improved first chapter of Isn't Life Juicy!

**Disclaimers:** I do not own InuYasha or any of these characters.

* * *

A n I n u Y a s h a F a n f i c t i o n

**Isn't Life Juicy? **

_An Alternate Universe Pairing Fanfiction_

Kagome & InuYasha – Sango & Miroku

**By Aienkien-Jitsuni**

* * *

Isn't Life Juicy  
**CHAPTER ONE**  
_When Life Gives You Lemons  
_--P A R T I --

'_I'm going to be late, I'm going to be late! I **cannot** believe I'm going to be late for my first history class presentation!_' Kagome raced down the halls, carrying a huge stack of papers. The stack was so tall, that it was practically blocking her vision – but that didn't matter to her as long as she got to her class in time. She expertly dodged the other tardy kids who were rushing off to their classes – trying to avoid being late for their next class, just like Kagome was.

The young girl finally slowed down her pace and took a deep breath, relief washing over her. She had made it to the room on time, with only a few seconds to spare. She took another breather and put a cheery smile on her face. This was the only thing that Kagome couldn't afford to go wrong this morning.

But she was getting ahead of herself. With her face still plastered with that bright smile, she didn't even notice the silver-haired guy that had bumped into her and had ran right into the classroom before her. The oblivious girl didn't even realize that the rude guy was screaming at her ("HEY WENCH, WATCH IT!"). But what she _did_ notice was her stack of papers falling out of her hands and slowly drifting in the air towards the ground – her hard work ending up scattered all over the tiled high school floor right outside her history classroom.

Her cheerful smile was replaced with a scowl and her brown eyes were filled with disbelief and anger. She could only think of two words that could form in her mind, which was still trying to comprehend what had happened.

"T-THAT JERK! **_THAT JERK!_**" Kagome muttered angrily under her breath as she tried to put the once organized report back together. It was hopeless though. Not only was she going to be late but now her report was all disorganized – and worse of all she had to pick up all of the papers herself. All because of _that jerk_.

She quickly scrambled to get all of the papers off of the ground, not even bothering to put the papers back into their original order, knowing fully well that it was useless to try. She had been working forever on that report and it took her half of the night to finish it. Not to mention that she only got a couple hours of sleep since she had finally finished putting the report together at 2am in the morning.

'_Maybe if I'm lucky, I'll be the last one to present my project! Yeah, if I just explain myself to the history teacher and tell her why I was late, she will definitely understand and might even let me present my project next history class. That will definitely be enough time for me to be prepared and ready with my report!_'

Kagome's optimism replaced her doubts and worries as her smile returned once again. She opened the door to the classroom and walked in filled with confidence and assurance. What she failed to realize what that she was yet again getting ahead of herself.

As she walked into the classroom with her messy pile of papers she heard shouts coming from the front of the room. She quickly went to her seat, trying her best to go unnoticed to avoid being late. As she fumbled with her papers, trying her best to organize it as best as she could, she couldn't help but overhear the argument her teacher was having with a student.

-----

"You are late once again. Takahashi, this is the third time this week!"

"Are you serious? You've got to be kidding me! I already told you the reason why I was late!"

"But that is not an excuse. You cannot be late for my class three times in a row. And no, I am not kidding because as you can see, I'm not laughing and this is a very serious matter."

"I'm not fucking laughing either and I know that this is serious! I'm telling you that my reason for being late is a pretty damn good one! Look, my car broke down so I had to –'

"Yes, yes. I've heard it already. But this time I won't tolerate excuses."

"What did I tell you! I am NOT making up excuses!"

"Fine. Then show me your report."

"…."

"Well?"

"I-I don't have it. I left it in my car."

"Just as I thought. As I have said before I will not tolerate tardiness or excuses for that matter. I will be sending you to the principal's office and you will have detention today after school. Do you hear me?"

"Nani! But I'm your best history student and you know it!"

"I do not favor my students and although you have quite a lot of potential, I still will not tolerate your behavior. So do you hear me, Takahashi?"

"Feh! I'm not fucking deaf."

-----

Finally, the argument and shouts had ended and the guy (that Kagome had concluded was the one that bumped into her) walked out of the classroom and slammed the door shut. Her history teacher rubbed his temples and popped a couple of pills in his mouth, while taking a sip of water from his water bottle.

Kagome lowered her head so that her bangs covered up her eyes, trying her best to not draw any attention to herself while at the same time trying to fix her report. She figured that if she just kept quiet maybe her history teacher wouldn't notice that she came in late.

After her teacher had a couple minutes to himself he sat down at his desk. A couple of minutes into the class the history teacher apologized to the class for the inconvenience and gave them a lecture on how excuses and tardiness will not be tolerated.

Kagome half-listened to the teacher because in the inside she was relieved that the teacher didn't notice right away that she was late. She couldn't believe it – she was off the hook!

'_All thanks to the rude egotistical jerk that delayed the class and helped me sneak into class unnoticed! I have to forgive him though since he did after all mess up my report and for bumping into me earlier, of course. I was a little mad before, but I can deal with it. I guess I should find him to thank him for–_'

"Kagome Higurashi."

Kagome snapped back into reality as her history teacher said her voice.

"Don't think that you got off so easy. Although I was a little preoccupied with Takahashi's excuses, I did get a glimpse of you sneaking into class – so don't think that you got in here without me noticing. But, instead of giving you detention since I'm really not a fan of detention myself, although Mr. Takahashi did deserve it, I think I will make you the first victim. Please come up to the front of the class and present your history report."

The history teacher's eyes rested upon her, along with the whole class.

Kagome sat frozen in her assigned seat.  
Her big brown eyes were wide and fearful.  
'_W-What am I going to do?_'

"Higurashi, we're waiting."

The girl quickly got out of her frozen state and hurriedly grabbed all the papers off of her desk. As she was carrying the pile of papers she almost tripped – she felt sick to her stomach and her legs seemed to be made out of jello. Kagome then shakily set the papers down on the teacher's desk, grabbed the papers that were on top, and stood nervously in front of the class.

She looked down at the few papers that she had and realized that there was no way she could do this. Her history report was all disorganized. The few report pages that she was holding were information on completely different eras, times, and years from each other. Even if she tried to find the beginning of her presentation in the mess of papers she doubted that she could ever put the whole report back together. There was definitely no hope in making up a report. This was history class, so that meant everything that came out of her mouth had to be a fact – and all the times that Kagome memorized information, dates, years, and events it eventually poured out of her brain and onto a test and was forgotten in a couple of days.

Kagome Higurashi, who was standing in front of her history class and teacher, was screwed.

'_All thanks to that rude egotistical jerk! I will never forgive him for bumping into me earlier and messing up my report – which I had worked on until two in the morning! I was a _little _mad before? Okay forget that I was _really_ pissed off before and I'm still pissed off now! How the heck am I going to deal with this! I AM GOING TO HUNT HIM DOWN!_'

* * *

Sango was already half way finished with her lunch before her raven-haired friend finally reached their usual lunch table. The young girl had carried a whole lunch tray of things but she didn't even touch any of it, and yet her brown eyes were staring right at the tray. Sango worried for her and was pretty sure that studying the meatloaf surprise was definitely the farthest thing from her mind. 

"Hey Kagome, are you alright?" asked Sango, her pink eye-lined brown eyes filled with worry. She still received no answer from her friend, who usually was so full of life was now quiet and still at the moment.

Sango got frustrated and threw her muffin at Kagome's head. The spaced out girl came right back to earth and snapped her head toward Sango's direction.

"What was that for, Sango?" shouted Kagome as she picked up the muffin and threw it back at Sango. But the dark brown haired girl just smiled. Now _there_ was the good old Kagome – who Sango knew all too well.

"I just thought that someone had abducted my best friend Kagome. So tell me who are you and what have you done with her!" Sango said teasingly, as she crossed her arms while waiting for an explanation.

"Gomen nesai." Kagome said apologetically as she smiled at her friend – who knew she was just worried about her. But after she thought of an explanation of why she was acting so weird, she couldn't help but think of all that had happened that morning. Kagome's smiled was replaced with a scowl land her bright brown eyes were filled with anger and annoyance. Sango quickly caught this.

"Kagome…?" asked Sango questioningly as her eyebrows rose up in surprise.

"AUGH!" Kagome groaned out loud as she clenched her fists. Sango quickly inched away as far as she could from her. "Kagome is not here right now, Sango! You know why? Because of everyone trying to ruin her life! I swear, everyone is trying to make her life as miserable as possible!"

"Uh, I don't think it's healthy to refer to yourself in the third person." Sango cut in, worried for her health. Kagome continued on with her ranting though, completely ignoring Sango's comment.

"So I had just finished typing up my report yesterday night, my history report that I had been working on all weekend by the way, and then my computer decided to crash! So I had to stay up until 2am to finish the stupid report! Imagine trying to type up a weekend's worth of research in a matter of hours! And then I finally finished it and only got a couple hours of sleep. Of course, I forgot that I set up my alarm clock before an hour earlier then I usually wake up. When it woke me up I thought I was late for school! I was so tired that I just got into my car and drove to school in my pajamas! When I reached the school I looked at my clock and finally realized that I got there two hours earlier before school even opened!"

Kagome took a breather here while Sango searched her bag for something. '_I could tell this is going to be a good story. Now where is my bag of popcorn…_'

"Then I had to drive all the way back to my house and take a shower and get dressed. After making sure that everything was okay I left the house – and I was so sure I was going to be early this time too because I had plenty of time left before my first class. So then as I'm about to drive away in my car I look up at the Goshinbuku Tree and I find Buyo stuck up there in the branches! That cat, I don't even know how it got up there in the first place! So after saving the cat –Kami-sama only knows how I did it in the matter of minutes that I did– I sped back to school without getting any tickets!"

Sango was about to protest to this. She had a reputation of not being afraid of a lot of things, but what Sango Taijiya was _really _afraid of was Kagome's driving. Every time she got into her car she always saw her life flashing before her eyes – and even though they usually made it out alive she always felt sick after the ride, and Sango Taijiya _never_ gets motion sickness. That was how bad Kagome's driving was.

"Oh don't worry Sango, I was wearing my seatbelt. Though, I sure hope that those kids walking across the street will be okay. That will teach them a thing or two about jay walking!"

Sango had horrible images start to form inside her head. '_Tonight on Tokyo News at 11, deaths of children crossing the street. Some witnesses say that it was a young girl who was driving recklessly. They say that they believe the suspect is the age of…_'

"Anyway so I arrive at homeroom with just a couple of minutes to spare and then just when I get to my seat that guy Hojou asked me out on a date! But before I could even say anything, the three girls that I usually talk to in the morning – you know Yuka, Eri, and Ayumi – they answered yes for me! They kept lecturing me on how I should date him since I'd be the envy of all of the girls of Shikon no Tama High but I had to keep telling them that he's not my type! They just won't listen. I was so stressed that I couldn't even concentrate on my chemistry exam! I'm pretty sure that I failed that. Then right before third period, Kouga started talking about how he wanted to tell me something important and before I replied he just grabbed my hand and took me out on the school roof for some strange reason. And then he started talking about something, reciting some poem or some sort – he did seem kind of nervous, but I wasn't really paying attention because I started freaking out! I was going to be late for history class and I had to present my history report so I just told him I had to go. I felt kind of bad though since he did say he had to tell me something important, but why did he have to choose such a hectic time for me?"

Sango stared at her friend in disbelief. How could Kagome not notice that Kouga was in love with her? Ever since they were childhood friends Sango could tell right then that the wolf boy had some feelings for her friend. Sango surely knew that Kagome probably thought of him as a good friend and only a good friend – but she probably didn't even think that Kouga could possibly be in love with her, which is why she didn't notice.

'_Poor, poor Kouga._ _He was probably going to tell Kagome how he felt about her._'

Even though the three of them didn't talk or hang out as much as they used to, Sango figured that Kouga still had feelings for her. After all he tried to get every chance he could to talk to Kagome.

But before Sango could get into a deep analysis of their friendship and if they did start going together if it would last or not, Kagome's cries of anguish and rambling complaints made Sango pay more attention to her friend's story.

"So after I reached my locker, I just grabbed my report and rushed to my history class! AND THEN WHEN I'M RIGHT OUTSIDE OF THE CLASSROOM, THAT JERK BUMPED INTO ME! He was rude, inconsiderate, and arrogant! I think he was even shouting something at me and what's worse is that he didn't even bother to help me pick up my report, WHICH WAS NOW RUINED ALL THANKS TO HIM -- NOT TO MENTION I WAS WORKING ON IT TILL 2 IN THE MORNING! I think I made him late as well, which serves him right because he deserved it! He ended up arguing with the history teacher and he was even sent to the principal's office and got a detention! But still, my moment of triumph and victory was short. To top off the rest of my fabulous morning, the teacher noticed that I was late as well and the teacher picked ME to present my history report first. THE ONLY PROBLEM WAS THAT JERK MESSED UP MY WHOLE REPORT AND I LOOKED LIKE A FOOL UP INFRONT OF THE WHOLE CLASS. So right after class I was practically begging the teacher to give me an extension on the report or at least a chance to pick up my grade since I ended up getting a D- on it for being unprepared and for being late. Argh, he wants me to write a 12-page report on the Feudal Era and its due by the end of this semester. _MY LIFE SUCKS!_"

Kagome finally finished her rant by shouting at the top of her lungs – which received a lot of strange glances from everyone who heard her. But she didn't care, her life was too miserable right now for her to deal with.

Sango put a comforting hand on her stressful friend. It was amazing how Kagome hadn't beaten the crap out of everybody who had made her life miserable – that's what Sango would have done. Actually come to think of it, Sango's life hadn't been so great for the past week.

"Well, if it makes you feel any better Kagome, my life is just as wonderful as yours." Sango said sarcastically. Kagome looked at her friend curiously with her brown eyes. At the moment anyone's life was way better than hers, so how could Sango's life be just as bad?

"Ever since Tai Kwon Do classes started this semester, there's this guy there – Miroku Houshi – and he is disgusting. He's a hentai, a pervert, and a lecher and for some reason I can't seem to get his hands off of me! Dear Kami-sama, you'd think that at least he'd stop after I smacked him about oh say a hundred times but he has this creepy weird grin that he just does to me and it's giving me nightmares! And I keep asking sensei to stop pairing me up with him when we practice but he just smiles and gives me a lecture on how I shouldn't be afraid! Hah, like I'm afraid. I can handle myself but it would be more convenient if he just stopped pairing me up with that pervert. And then right after Tai Kwon Do class he keeps following me and groping me! I can't stand him!

Not to mention that I'm practically failing most of my classes. I think I failed my English Literature test and I swear the art teacher hates me – everything that I do in that class she criticizes me, not to mention I could really care less about art since I hate that subject. I don't even see the point in a class that teaches you how to draw!

I'm also broke – out of cash more than usual if that's even possible. We have to start working today after school at the smoothie shop and the last thing I want to do is work. Did I even tell you that my application almost didn't get accepted? It's been missing ever since last week and with my luck and grace I probably dropped it somewhere. So as you can see, you are not alone."

After Sango finished her long rant, Kagome stared at her with wide expressionless brown eyes. Then after a couple of minutes she started to burst out laughing. She was laughing so hard that tears started coming out of her eyes. Sango looked at her friend and pitied her.

'_My dear friend was so hopelessly miserable that she simply went crazy, and at such a young age too!_'

While Sango in her mind was thinking up ways to tell people how the young girl became crazy and hysterical with laughter, Kagome said something in between her giggles that had caught Sango's attention.

"Oh Sango, how did our lives become so miserable?" asked Kagome as she started to laugh so hard that she had to hold her sides, while at the same time tears were streaming down her face. Sango thought about it and then started laughing as well. Their lives were so ridiculously miserable that it was almost funny! Sango was laughing so hard that her pink eye make up was starting to run from the fresh tears that were coming out of her eyes as well – not because she was laughing but because her life was so miserable.

"**_OUR LIVES SUCK!_**"

The two of them shouted at the same time, unaware of the stares that they received.  
They tried their best to stop their hysterical laughter and their miserable tears.  
But they were so miserable that they didn't calm down until lunch period ended.

_

* * *

Focus on the target. Draw your arm back. Line up your arrow. Don't Blink. Hit the mark' _

The arrow was close but it had just missed the target. Her aim was way off today. She didn't care though. Kagome was at the last place that she wanted to be – which was archery practice. After the rants, tears, and laughter during lunch period she had felt a little better but now she was exhausted. It didn't help at all that her head was throbbing and she was so tired because she stayed up so late last night.

"Higurashi! Focus! You're off today!" shouted her sensei, who was strict and vigilant – especially on her.

Kagome was a great archer and had mastered it in a short amount of time. She had only started doing archery this year and she was already good! She was known at Shikon no Tama High as the youngest skilled archer – since most of them were upperclassman and she was only a sophomore. But of course, she could not measure up to Shikon no Tama High's great archer – Kikyou Midoriko, who had years of training and was undefeated. No matter how hard she tried she always seemed to be second best to her.

"Hai, sensei." Kagome nodded as she tried to focus again. She was starting to nod off but she still tried to concentrate.

_Focus, Kagome! Focus on the target. Draw your arm back. Line up your arrow._

_If I could only just rest my eyes, just for a couple of minutes…  
Then maybe I can hit the mark…_

Kagome then closed her eyes and fell asleep right there on the spot. Her arm relaxed and she released the arrow, which missed the target completely and was aimed toward the fencing practices.

The silver haired hanyou stared at his opponent through the black mesh of his protective mask. Before either one of them could strike, an arrow came out of nowhere and ended up pinning his fencing uniform to a tree that was right behind him.

* * *

"What the hell?" he shouted as he looked at the arrow that had just luckily grazed his left arm. The half demon realized it could have been a lot more deadly if the arrow was aimed just a little more to the right – because if it was, it could have pierced his heart. 

As if that wasn't enough for buried memories to start to come back to him, he looked at the direction where the arrow had come from and saw a girl who resembled and was almost identical to–

"Kikyou…" he whispered. The painful memories started flooding back to him and replayed inside his mind –memories of the night when his heart was pierced by cold dark eyes.

-----

**A Week Earlier – Flashback  
**_InuYasha's heart was broken and yet his mind could not get the girl who had broken his heart out of his head. Every time he thought of reasons why she had broken up with him, it still wasn't enough to just throw what they had away. He loved her, and he thought she loved him. But she ended their relationship so abruptly that InuYasha was certain that there had to be an explanation, some kind of logic because she didn't even explain why she broke up with him._

_When he met up at the mall with her earlier today, where their usual dates and plans took place, he sensed that something was wrong with her. As they were walking silently beside each other for a long time, sick of staring at the crowds of people and stores, InuYasha broke the silence and asked her what was wrong._

_Kikyou looked at him sadly, her dark brown eyes filled with heartache and pain. She kissed InuYasha lightly, tears coming to her eyes. InuYasha was confused and stood there with his amber orbs filled with confusion and worry._

"_InuYasha, I must never be with you again." Kikyou said, her soft quiet voice trembling. She then turned her head away, her eyes avoiding his questioning gaze. Her dark midnight hair and bangs covered most of her face and her tears. "Gomen nesai." she said hurriedly as she started walking away._

_The confused hanyou who was standing there quickly became angry. He quickly followed her and caught up with the longhaired girl. He grabbed her hand and forced her to look at him. They stared at each other – golden amber eyes fixated on dark chocolate eyes – unaware that they were still at the mall. Their surroundings no longer mattered to them. _

_He quickly entwined her fingers with his and despite her protests she gave in – he wasn't going to let go of her so easily. He tucked a long strand of ebony hair behind her ear. Then he kissed her – he kissed her with all of his love, all of his passion, and all of his desperation that he couldn't put into words. She tried to pull away but she couldn't help it – she wanted to. A tear trickled down her face as they broke for air. InuYasha thought he had changed her mind but Kikyou had just stared at him with tear-filled eyes._

"_It's over."_

_Their last kiss that they had shared only happened a few hours ago. With those words his whole world fell apart. InuYasha had since then been wandering around his neighborhood, walking around aimlessly with no destination. He looked up at the sky. The bright moon illuminated the night by itself – there were no stars out tonight. _

_His nose was intoxicated by her_ _scent and he quickly realized that he had walked towards Kikyou's house. He noticed a light coming from her backyard and he ran towards it, her scent becoming stronger. The hanyou jumped easily over the fence and entered her backyard – where she was practicing her archery. He landed gracefully in front of her._

"_K-Kikyou!" he said, his voice unsure and hesitant. They stood there, staring at each other. The cool night breeze blew each other's hair about – her dark hair and his silver hair flying wildly about their faces but still neither one of them broke their gaze. The newly blossomed cherry blossom trees swayed, some petals falling about them – their usual pink hue reflecting a pale light blue glow from the moonlight._

_And then, Kikyou's dark brown eyes almost looked black and her stare became cold and emotionless. She aimed her arrow and pinned him to the tree behind him. It slightly grazed the top of his left shoulder._

"_K-Kikyou, Kikyou! Why?" InuYasha asked, his amber eyes desperate for an answer. The archer stared at him coldly._

"_My father does not approve of our relationship. I will obey his will. Leave me be." Kikyou said simply as she turned around to walk away. InuYasha angrily unpinned himself, removing the arrow from the tree and moved toward Kikyou._

"_Who gives a fuck what your damn father says! Who cares about Naraku! You shouldn't care about him or whatever the hell he says! He shouldn't control your life like this!" shouted InuYasha. Kikyou stopped and stood still, listening to his reasoning._

"_Kikyou…" he said more delicately. He then started walking towards her but she fiercely turned around with her bow and arrow aimed towards him. _

"_DON'T MOVE!" she ordered, her eyes filled with anger and fury as she drew her arm back and aimed her arrow. InuYasha kept on walking towards her slowly. Angry tears started to spill from her cold black eyes._

"_I-I'm warning you!" she screamed, her voice cracking. But the determined hanyou did not stop. Kikyou shut her eyes and let go of her arrow, which cut across the side of InuYasha's face. Both of them gasped, surprised that she had done such a thing. He put his claw up to her face and stared at his own blood, a thick crimson fluid now flowing down his face._

'_Is this some kind of horrible dream?' InuYasha thought._

_Kikyou stood up straight and wiped her betraying tears away from her cold dark eyes. She drew another arrow and aimed it at him – straight at his heart._

"_Now leave me be. This is already hard enough for me to do." Kikyou said, her eyes burning with fresh tears. "Next time, you won't be so lucky half breed." She said, her voice threatening and tainted with anger._

_InuYasha had finally understood. Her father didn't approve of him – because he was a **half breed**._

_He then jumped the fence, running as far away as he could from the truth – not paying any attention at all to the cut on his face or the wound on the top of his left shoulder, which started to bleed as well from the arrow's grazing. _

_All he could pay attention to was the distant sound of sobs coming from the girl with cold piercing dark brown eyes. Before he could get out of his demon range ear-shot, the heartbroken hanyou had managed to hear her whisper her last words to him._

"_I hate you, InuYasha."_

_He didn't think it was possible, but his world fell apart yet again on that starless night._

-----

"Takahashi-sempai, are you alright?"

His opponent quickly removed his mask and hurried over to the side of the hanyou, who seconds before looked spaced out and dazed was now alert and pretty pissed off. InuYasha merely grunted in a response. The challenger quickly brushed off his chestnut bangs out of his eyes. The freshman looked worriedly at his opponent with bright jade green eyes.

"Are you sure you're alright?" he asked in concern, trying to make sure that the team's best fencer was not harmed in any way. InuYasha quickly removed the arrow and unpinned himself from the tree.

"I'm fine! Now get out of my way you little runt!" The angry half demon said angrily as he pushed the short freshman away. He clenched the wooden arrow into his fist before throwing it somewhere towards the archery practices blindly – hoping that it would hit the stupid girl that looked like Kikyou.

"WORK ON YOUR AIM, WENCH!" He growled gruffly as he shook his fists at the girl. He then turned away and started muttering curses and things under his breath as he grabbed the sword off of the ground where he had dropped it.

Shippou slowly shook his head at himself as he put his black fencing protection mask back on.

"Half-breeds…" he said under his breath as he bowed to his opponent and they both stood in a stance.

"Oh yeah? Say that to my face!" the hanyou snarled as he jabbed his sword in his opponent's direction, but with the freshman's quick speed he dodged it easily.

The fight continued with neither of them knowing that a girl was glaring in their direction from a distance.

* * *

Kagome watched the fight from afar, glaring at the familiar silver-haired moron who had just thrown an arrow directly at her face. While she observed the jerk who quickly succumbed his little opponent, she couldn't help but think how she would have enjoyed the fight more if the little guy beat the crap out of that jerk. She then put her hand up to her stinging cheek and stared at her fingers, which were now spotted with blood. 

Okay, so maybe it wasn't safe to fall asleep during archery practice. But at least Kagome had a good reason – the teenage girl was stressed out here and lacked sleep! What she did was a lot more safer than what that jerk had did, throwing around arrows like that! She was lucky that she only got a cut on her face instead of her eye getting pierced by the sharp point of the arrow. There was a fine point between rude awakenings and rude people awakening her by throwing arrows at her.

And this time she had heard his comment since she was awaken by his loud, obnoxious voice.

"WORK ON YOUR AIM, WENCH!"

His arrogant voice echoed in her head. The nerve of him! The nerve that he had to criticize her archery skills! So maybe her aim did slip a little as she nodded off – oh, who was she kidding her aim was horrible today but it was because she was having a horrible day and it was as simple as that. But come on, she'd rather get pinned to a tree than get arrows getting chucked at her! Not to mention, he had ruined her life by bumping into her before that torturing history class!

Kagome was certain that that silver-haired jerk had ruined her life.

She finally tore her eyes away from him and started concentrating on her archery with a newly vitalized determination to hit the target. Her eyes were no longer heavy lidded and in fact she was fully wide-awake. She concentrated on the mark.

_FOCUS! Focus on the mark! Draw your arm back! Line up your arrow! Don't dare blink! Fire! _

For the rest of her archery practice all she got were bull's eyes. Not to mention her aim was _perfect_. She received an amazed applause from the rest of the admiring archers and from her proud sensei. It was strange because for some reason she no longer felt tired or exhausted at all.

'_Ha! How's that for aim, jerk?' _she thought silently to herself. _'Kagome Higurashi is no_ _wench!'_

* * *

"I can't believe_ that wench _pinned me to the fucking tree during fencing practice! What kind of aim is that?" the hanyou ranted on as he leaned next to his best friend's locker. 

"But the weird thing is she looked exactly like Kikyou – of course her aim was nothing at all compared to hers but it was just fucking weird, you know? I thought I was over Kikyou and then I started remembering the day she broke up with me and all of this other shit. I just don't know how to deal with this anymore. HEY! ARE YOU EVEN LISTENING TO ME, MIROKU?"

His dark haired friend quickly grabbed his literature and english textbooks and stuffed them into his black book bag, quickly nodding and just barely paying attention to what his silver-haired friend had to say.

"Damn it, Miroku! I'm trying to talk to you!" InuYasha complained as he punched his distracted friend on his head. But after a week of surviving constant punches, hitting, and smacking (not only from his strong half demon friend but also by the girl he was in love with, who was tough and athletic), it seemed that Miroku was immune to pain. He ignored the punch and just smiled his goofy grin at his best friend.

"Gomen, InuYasha. But I can't wait! In a matter of minutes I'll be working with my beloved Sango!" the pervert smiled hopelessly as he closed his locker and started walking down the hall with his exasperated half demon friend following him.

"DAMN IT! The job starts today? I can't believe I forgot. Augh!" groaned InuYasha in aggravation as he started pulling out his silver strands of hair. "Kami-sama, I've been having the fucking worst week ever! Miroku can you do me a favor and just make up an excuse for me? Because I'm going to be late for the job thing."

Miroku looked at the stressed out hanyou and raised an eyebrow up at him.

"You got in trouble again? What for this time?" he said questioningly, but he wasn't at the least surprised.

InuYasha always got in trouble so it wasn't like it was a big surprise or anything – but it seemed like his half demon friend was stressing out more than usual. He didn't blame him though. InuYasha's life was hard enough to deal with. And after all, Miroku knew all of this because he was the only person InuYasha had ever trusted.

InuYasha Takahashi was born into a rich and wealthy family and his father owned one of the biggest enterprises of Japan – Taisho Corporations. And yet that was the last thing that you'd think the hanyou was because not only did he not look like it, he didn't act like it either. He never once bragged or showed off the fact that he was filthy rich. In fact, he hated how he was rich and wealthy and did everything he could to rebel against his father's wishes and embarrass his older brother, Sesshomaru. InuYasha despised his older brother and father, but he had to live with them and deal with them because they were the only family he had since he used to live with his mother, who had died when he was really young. And the most obvious of his problems was that he was a demon. Well, half, since his mother was a human and his father was demon. Basically he had to deal with all kinds of problems with full demons (like his brother) and humans (some despised his heritage) from time to time that didn't accept that he was half human _and_ half demon.

And on top of all of that in the past week InuYasha's car had broken down 7 times, had gotten 24 detentions from 9 different teachers, failed 3 out of 5 math quizzes and tests, and his 1 and only girlfriend dumped him over some stupid reason.

It was like never ending drama seemed to terrorize InuYasha's life and all Miroku could do was just be there for his hanyou friend. And even though Miroku didn't realize how needed he really was since he was the half demon's only real friend, he couldn't help but feel helpless every time InuYasha had another problem to deal with.

The thoughtful dark-haired teenager was quickly snapped back into reality as the hanyou started to answer his question.

"I got in trouble with the history teacher for being late again and he gave me fucking detention! God damn it, why can't they see that my car is a load of shit! I can't help but be late!" InuYasha continued rambling in frustration, "You'd think they'd let me off the hook but hell no, let's make InuYasha's life miserable –it'll be a fucking blast!"

Miroku shook his head, pitying the poor hanyou and his sarcastic remarks as he rambled on.

"And I would have made it to class on time if a stupid wench didn't block the damn doorway – I practically bumped into her! Hell, I couldn't even see her because of the damn stack of papers she was carrying! I don't understand why the hell you would need that many papers for! Why are people so fucking stupid?" InuYasha yelled at the top of his lungs to no one in particular, as if a rhetoric question. He quickly waited for Kami-sama to give him the meaning of life or at least just answer his question -- but no one answered it for him.

Miroku just stood there patiently and quietly while listening to InuYasha's rambling. Even though he was perverted, lecherous, and had so-called 'cursed' hands that seemed to wander and grope beautiful women – he had other qualities that redeemed him. He was an excellent listener, had the patience of a saint, and the concentration of a meditating monk.

Miroku then put a comforting hand on InuYasha's shoulder.

"Well, if it makes you feel any better…" Miroku began slowly, as his eyes were closed thoughtfully. The hanyou listened intently, his dog ears twitching. InuYasha desperately wished that Miroku was about to describe his unbearable week. Hopefully his perverted friend was having a just as horrible week as he was having – because at least then he'd have someone to be miserable with.

"…I'm having a pretty great week! Groping my darling Sango, following my precious Sango, even in Tai Kwon Do classes I get to spend time with my cherished Sango since my sensei keeps pairing me up with her! She even talked to me today – my dearest Sango! Hmm, I can't remember what she was saying since her sweet voice was ringing in my ears. She was practically screaming at me to stay away from her and her bottom! She's just so cute when she's mad! She's really quite strong, my lovely Sango! She punched me right here last week and the bump hasn't stopped swelling yet! She's got to be crazy about me! And –"

Okay, this definitely was not what the half demon wanted to hear.

"Miroku. I swear say Taijiya's name one more time and I will fucking kill you!"

InuYasha threatened, flexing his claws so that his knuckles cracked.

"Why, InuYasha! I thought you would be happy for me! I thought my happiness would uplift your spirits!" said Miroku as he seemed shocked, "I am deeply hurt!"

"Not yet you ain't. But that could be arranged." InuYasha said – half of him was kidding, yet half of him really wanted to rip the lovesick pervert to shreds.

"Well would it make you feel any better if I said my week was going just as horrible as yours?" Miroku asked innocently, his eyebrows raised.

"Maybe just a little." admitted InuYasha as he stubbornly crossed his arms and turned away from his clever friend – who always seemed to know how to trick the hanyou like that.

"Well, I would pretend to be miserable along with you but I must get going – _my beloved Sango_ (the half demon winced) is waiting for me at the smoothie shop, where our love is destined to grow between us!"

Miroku said as he made silly hand gestures, saying the last line dramatically with his hands over his heart.

"Miroku." InuYasha said threateningly, his voice dangerously quiet.

"Yes, my friend?" Miroku said turning to him, with an innocent little smile and his azure eyes sparkling.

"I am going to fucking kill you!" InuYasha screamed, his hands clenched into fists as he tried to grab his dark-haired best friend but the clever lecher anticipated his moves and dodged him as he ran away.

"Gomen, but I don't have time for being killed because _my darling Sango _is awaiting my arrival! I'll see you later at the smoothie shop, so good luck with detention! Ja ne!" The quick pervert tauntingly shouted goodbye over his shoulder, smirking as he ran toward the school entrance.

"Damn you, Miroku! Get your ass back here!" screamed the hanyou as he stomped his feet and threw his clenched fists in the air. But he knew his attempts were useless, since he did have detention after all.

The half demon turned away and started walking toward the principal's office for his detention – his arms crossed in frustration.

"Feh! Stupid Miroku."

InuYasha quickly made up his mind that he would rather be alone in his misery than listen to a hopelessly in love pervert talk on and on about a girl that hated his guts – no matter how much the damn lecher didn't notice it at all.

Just thinking about all of that mushy pet name love junk made the half demon shiver.

* * *

To Be Continued…

* * *

**Author's Note: **Okay, so the name of this chapter might not make any sense right now -- but when you read the next chapter, it will all come together! I wish I could have left everything the way it was, but it was too ridiculously long so I had to do something about it. _In the next chapter_ -- Kagome, Sango, Miroku, and InuYasha find out that they're working together…and also learn how to make lemonade smoothies? As if their lives couldn't get any more miserable!

**Don't forget to review!**  
That's what keeps me going, after all!  
_  
Until next chapter!_ -- AK-J.


	3. When Live Gives You Lemons & Part II

**Last Chapter on Isn't Life Juicy: **"_MY LIFE SUCKS!_" That's what Kagome Higurashi and Sango Taijiya shouted at the top of their lungs after realizing how miserable they really were. But they weren't the only ones -- InuYasha Takahashi also thinks that everyone is trying to make his life as miserable as possible, right after he gets a detention from his history teacher. Miroku Houshi seems to be the only one whose life isn't ruined -- despite the many beatings he gets from Sango, the girl that he's in love with. He's also the only one looking forward to the first day of work. Hmm, this is where things will get interesting. I wonder how they'll all react after they find out that they're working with one another?

**  
Author's Note:** _Updated Feburary 19th, 2006 --- _Okay, so I've proofread and made some slight changes to all of the previous chapters that I've posted. I'm glad to say that I'm finally satisfied with splitting this chapter into half. I just hope that my other chapters won't be so long, so that I won't have to do this again, ehe! I can't wait to start working on the next chapter! But for now, here's the rest of the chapter!

**Disclaimers:** I do not own InuYasha or any of these characters.

* * *

A n I n u Y a s h a F a n f i c t i o n

**Isn't Life Juicy? **

_An Alternate Universe Pairing Fanfiction_

Kagome & InuYasha – Sango & Miroku

**By Aienkien-Jitsuni**

* * *

Isn't Life Juicy  
**CHAPTER ONE**  
_When Life Gives You Lemons  
_--P A R T II --

The half demon turned away and started walking toward the principal's office for his detention – his arms crossed in frustration.

"Feh! Stupid Miroku."

InuYasha quickly made up his mind that he would rather be alone in his misery than listen to a hopelessly in love pervert talk on and on about a girl that hated his guts – no matter how much the damn lecher didn't notice it at all.

Just thinking about all of that mushy pet name love junk made the half demon shiver.

* * *

"I-It's freezing in here!" Sango said as she shivered uncomfortably. 

Kagome nodded in agreement as she huddled closer to her friend.

The smoothie shop was a narrow brick building that was located near the food court in the Sengoku Jidai Outlet Mall, where Kagome and Sango often shopped at. On the outside of the shop there was a hip and trendy logo made up of neon lights that hung right over the glass doors. Flyers, menu examples, advertisements, and store hours were all over the glass doors – which made the store attractive, inviting, and colorful.

As Kagome and Sango walked inside the shop, they found that the little smoothie shop was a lot bigger than it looked. The walls and ceiling were painted a vibrant orange-yellow color and framed pictures decorated the walls. Contemporary lime-green lights hanged from the ceiling, which brightened up the room. The floor was titled with pale shades of green which helped soften up all of the bright colors.

On one side there was a large counter that took up most of the room on the side of the shop. The glass part of the counter displayed fruits that were neatly set up in rows by color – berries, melons, and all different kinds of other fruits. Behind the glass counter there was room to mix all of the ingredients and make smoothies. On the bright green solid part of the counter, there were two cashier machines – and beside them were different colored straws and containers of napkins, along with fresh fruits displayed in silver bowls to help decorate the counter.

On the wall behind the main counter were chalk menus written in bright different colors, while the more permanent menus were displayed like posters on the side of the wall. Also behind the counter was another counter made out of stainless steel – where all of the blenders, utensils, and ingredients were set up. There was a huge metallic container where all of the ice was kept in. A silver swinging door near the stainless steel counter and ingredients was where the kitchen and inventory area was.

On the other side of the room, opposite of the large counter, large sliding door coolers displayed a variety of sodas, juices, iced teas, and other drinks. Next to this, there was a little nook where bright orange shelves displayed bright cups and mugs and fun crazy straws – and on the shelves were red-orange baskets that displayed packets and tins of various sizes that had quality tea powders and mixtures.

The rest of the room was used as seating. The main seating area was made up of bright red café tables decorated with a bowl of fruit, accompanied by two or three steel chairs cushioned with red plush. Big comfy lime green couches with lemon yellow cushions were lined up against the wall, with smoothie recipe books ready to read. They were set up neatly on a little coffee table in front of the couches. Near the windows, a bright red counter hovered in the air along with a matching set of stools that went all along the counter.

Basically, if heaven were a smoothie shop, this would definitely be it.

"Konnichiwa! Good afternoon, girls! Welcome to **_Kajuu Juusu's_** – you're local smoothie shop! Hope you liked what I've done with the place!" A cheerful young woman who looked as if she were in her early twenties – just a couple years older than Kagome and Sango – bowed down to the pair of girls who were standing in awe of the amazing smoothie shop. She smiled brightly, her warm hazel eyes flickering while her untamed shoulder-length layered hair was wild and tucked behind her ears.

"K-Konnichiwa!" Kagome and Sango said in unison nervously as they both bowed down to the woman.

"How silly of me, I forgot to introduce myself! My name is Meirou Rin and I'm your boss!" the bright woman said cheerfully as she bowed down to both of the girls in return.

"You girls are early and I'm sure you two will be great employees! The other two haven't arrived yet but I'll just be waiting here. As for you girls, here are your new uniforms that I expect you to wear while you work here – and since this place is freezing, these clothes are a lot warmer than the ones that you're wearing right now! There's a small employee's room that you can find near the restroom and you can change there!" Rin said beaming as she pushed the confused girls towards the employee's room.

"Arigatou! Arigatou!" the pair of girls said, overwhelmed. They quickly closed the door to the employee's room – which looked like a large storage room with boxes stacked up on one side.

"Well, she's definitely a very energetic person. I wonder how old she is? We're so lucky to have such a young boss." said Sango as she dropped her uniform on a pile of boxes next to her.

"Yeah I know! She seems real young and extremely nice. I'm so glad that she's not some mean old grouchy boss." Kagome replied while she started to remove her shirt.

"True. This place is amazing though – it's hard to believe that it's just a smoothie shop!" said Sango in disbelief as she started to pull her dark brown hair into a ponytail.

"I know – wait until the other kids find out about this store when it opens!" said Kagome as she put on her orange cap. She twirled around and looked at her uniform. She wore a bright orange shirt under a bright green strapped dress that was a couple inches above the knee. The look was topped off with a dark green apron and a bright orange cap with the words – **_Kajuu Juusu's_** – written in cursive with bright yellow stitching. Despite the bright colors, she thought that it was a very cute uniform to work in.

"Okay, I'm done. I guess I'll wait for you outside, Sango!" shouted Kagome over her shoulder as she walked out of the storage room. Sango nodded, not even anywhere near being done.

The young raven-haired girl felt a lot more comfortable in the cold store since her layered clothes kept her warm. She saw that her boss Rin was nowhere to be found so she decided to take a seat at one of the comfy lime green couches. This place was really amazing and she was glad that she was working there – it was lucky that they just applied for this job by chance.

Kagome closed her eyes and laid her head on one of the lemon yellow cushions. Before drifting off to sleep she heard a loud smack and her friend screaming the words "_HENTAI!_" at the top of her lungs.

The concerned girl quickly got up from her comfortable seat and ran towards the employee room – where the door was wide open.

There was a guy that was sprawled out on the floor with a bright red handprint mark on his face while a pile of work clothes (a uniform that matched Kagome's, with only slight differences) laid scattered all over the floor. A very pissed off Sango stood over him – half dressed – with a light tint of pink on her cheeks.

"G-Gomen but I didn't know that you were in there! I would have never–" the guy said apologetically, (while at the same time his eyes were wandering towards the half-dressed girl's body) but his attempts were useless.

"_JUST GET OUT!" _screamed the dark-haired girl as she kicked him out of the room (literally) and slammed the door. Kagome shook her head and helped the poor guy up who was still scattered out on the floor.

'_Maybe this was the guy that Sango was complaining about before._' Kagome thought to herself.

As she picked him up, he quickly regained his composure and started apologizing.

"Gomen nesai. I didn't expect anyone to be in there. I thought that no one was in there and Meirou-san even told me to go change in the employee's room. I honestly didn't know someone was still changing in there."

"Oh no problem! I'm sure it was just a big misunderstanding." Kagome smiled up at him politely.

'_No way could this guy be a pervert! I'm sure Sango was just overreacting when she said he was a hentai. He seems polite enough and charming as well -- not to mention he's cute too!'_

But Kagome judged him way too soon as he grabbed her hands and looked deeply into her eyes.

"W-What are you–" stuttered Kagome, confused with the guy's sudden change in behavior.

"You are so understanding! I was wondering, my beautiful lady, if you would bear my child?" asked Miroku in a serious tone.

Kagome was caught off guard and didn't know what to say while a choking noise started coming from the employee's room door behind them. In just a couple of seconds, Sango – fully dressed – burst out of the door with a shocked look on her face.

"_N-NANI?_" Sango said as her voice cracked and her dark brown eyes were wide with disbelief while her cheeks were a slight shade of pink with embarrassment –

'No, that couldn't be right because she had nothing to be embarrassed about.' Kagome thought skeptically to herself.

Sango Taijiya had a flustered blush on her face because she was…jealous?

The poor confused raven-haired girl stood there speechless while the indigo-eyed boy turned his head towards the girl who had the reputation of being "The Girl Exterminator". He immediately let go of Kagome's hands and clasped onto the flustered dark-haired girl's hands.

"Oh, do not fret my dear Sango! Of course you are the only woman in my life!" Miroku exclaimed as he beamed at her while his violet eyes sparkled. Sango's dark brown eyes stared at the ground defiantly while snorting.

"Huh, like that will ever happen. You can't even focus your attention on one girl!" stated Sango as she let go of the pervert's hands – her fingers still tingling. Kagome watched the scene from afar unnoticed. She saw the dark haired boy's smile fall and his once sparking sapphire eyes become dull and tired – while she watched her friend stare at her hands deep in thought, her cheeks still a slight shade of pink.

But before Kagome or either of them could even come to term with their thoughts – their boss popped up in front of them, smiling upon them while her nut-brown eyes darted from one to the other.

"I'm so glad you all got to introduce yourself to one another! Let me tell you how relieved I am that you're all sociable! I can't stand the silent types -- you can never get a good conversation out of them! As for me, I love to talk!" The woman chirped as she motioned them to follow her into the kitchen. After they all filed into the kitchen silently, with the exception of their boss, they stood there patiently and listened to her chatter.

"As you can see, you guys are the new employees of this smoothie shop – where its bright and successful future depends on you!" the very excited woman explained. "Though it would help if I knew each of your names – it would be quite strange if you all knew my name but I didn't know yours! To think about working with people whose names you don't even know! Anyway…" She trailed off, quickly looking at her clipboard that was sitting on the stainless steel countertop table and sifted through the application papers.

"Let's see who we have here. Kagome Higurashi." The raven-haired girl quickly bowed nervously.

"Okay, Sango Taijiya." The girl that wore pink eye makeup hastily bowed.

"And I'm guessing Miroku Houshi." The violet-eyed boy bowed formally.

"Hmm, that's funny. I thought there was another employee that I hired." She thought absentmindedly as she tapped her finger at her chin while her eyes drifted towards the ceiling. The dark-haired boy quickly cleared his throat.

"Gomen nesai, Meirou-san. I am a personal friend of that employee and he wishes to be excused for being late." Miroku said seriously. His face then broke into an anguished sigh and a grim frown as he started to continue with his explanation.

"It has seemed that some last minute emergency has come up for my troubled friend. You see, his house suddenly went on fire and he went to see if his sick elderly grandmother was alright. We can only pray." Miroku bowed his head solemnly while the two other female employees glared at him unconvinced.

"Oh the poor boy! I hope his grandmother is okay!" exclaimed Rin as she raised her hands up to cover her mouth and her light brown eyes were filled with concern. She put a comforting hand on the lecherous liar's shoulder.

Because Rin Meirou was utterly gullible, clueless, and a little too naïve for her own good – she believed every single word of it (unlike Kagome and Sango, who couldn't believe how the pervert and the other late employee had gotten out of trouble so easily).

"He can come in anytime he wants! Surely a measly job would definitely seem very unimportant to a boy in his circumstances. And anyway the next two weeks of work will just be spent on training you guys to make smoothies! Kajuu Juusu's doesn't open until then."

After Rin had finished this sentence, an elderly lady walked into the kitchen and stood right next to the young woman. They both bowed down to each other politely and Rin gave her a kind smile.

"Employees, I would like you to meet Kaede Imouto – Kajuu Juusu's manager. She's actually a local shrine priestess, believe it or not but she has decided to get a part-time job here. She's a great cook – believe me, she can make anything delicious! The secret is her herbs and spices that she adds to the smoothies, which make them one of a kind and unique. She's concocted and created a lot of the recipes for Kajuu Juusu's, so obviously she will be the one to teach you guys how to make these smoothies!"

"It is nice to meet ye all." Kaede said in her old-fashioned accent, bowing while the others bowed in return.

Kaede Imouto was an obviously old woman – the wrinkles on her skin proving her many years of wisdom and living. Her once black hair has faded into a dull gray and was pulled back into a loose ponytail with a white ribbon, while her loose hair framed her aged face. She had one dark brown eye, while the other eye was covered with a black eye patch. She definitely looked like a wise elderly priestess – if she weren't wearing her uniform. The elderly woman looked strange and out of place since she was wearing the Kajuu Juusu's uniform – the bright youthful colors not suiting her very well. But despite the bright orange cap she was wearing, she looked friendly, kind, and approachable compared to most old-fashioned elders who judged you the second they saw you.

All of the younger employees bowed politely back and stood there waiting for any further directions.

The elderly woman examined each of the new employees with her sharp dark eyes. She gave a real hard look at Kagome and gasped a little when she studied her – the poor raven-haired girl quickly shifted her weight from one foot to the other while her dark brown eyes darted uneasily.

'_Why is she looking at me like that? She barely even glanced at Sango. I'm pretty sure this is the first time we've met…so why did she gasp like she was surprised to see me?'_

Kagome's thoughts were quickly shut off as Kaede turned her attention to the violet-eyed teenager. Her dark eyes looked up and down at the young boy who was standing right in front of her.

"Why are ye not in your uniform?" she asked curiously as she stared at his normal school day clothes. The girls quickly gave him a cold stare, but it went unnoticed as the young man sweat dropped and put his hand behind his head nervously.

"Well, uh…you see. There's a reasonable explanation for that. Well…" Miroku stumbled, his eyes avoiding the elderly woman's stare. He chuckled nervously, his charming smile a little off. The two female employees got excited – anticipating a good lecture that the pervert deserved. But unfortunately their boss had saved him with her impatient enthusiasm.

"Oh it's alright. I'm sure you can change later! Let's just get to work, shall we?" chimed Rin cheerfully as she started rolling up her sleeves and putting on an apron.

Of course she didn't notice the defeated look on Kagome's and Sango's faces as they hung their heads in disbelief. Miroku on the other hand wiped his forehead in relief as he started chuckling to himself at how lucky he was. The watchful Kaede saw everything, quietly chucking to herself thoughtfully, as she started to get the right equipment to start making smoothies.

After gathering all types of different fruits and ingredients, along with all of the mixing instruments like blenders and such – she quickly looked at all of the employees.

"Let's start off with the basics of smoothie making…"

* * *

After two hours of talking about the basics of smoothies they had finally started making them – simple flavors such as a strawberry, banana, mango, raspberry, blueberry, coconut, peach, and pineapple flavored smoothies. Kaede also informed them about the special herbs and spices she used to make the more complicated recipes of the smoothies. They had just finished working on strawberry banana, pineapple passion, mixed berries (_called berrylicious_), and various fruits (_called tootie fruitie_), along with a mixture of the more exotic fruits that they had (_called tropical paradise_). There were so many different flavors that they had yet to learn – and they barely even mastered the blender. 

It was a long and tedious process and it was hard to memorize all of the recipes, and it was definitely a lot more work than they had anticipated. After a 15-minute break of lounging around in the big comfy couches, they regrouped in the kitchen to see Kaede and Rin standing at a table covered with lemons. The blender along with a couple other ingredients took up as little space as they could since the yellow fruit dominated the table.

All of them stared at it, the harsh bright yellow stinging their eyes a bit. Despite their obvious differences, the three employees stared at the fruit thinking the same thing.

'_How did they get so many lemons to fit on one table?_'

Rin smiled humorously at their shocked faces and started to give them an explanation.

"Kajuu Juusu's is definitely not your average, ordinary, boring smoothie shop. It's different, unique, and original! So of course we had to have some smoothie flavors on our list that are original and different – and Kaede here is going to teach you guys how to make one of those original, signature flavors!"

Rin frowned a bit, wondering why they were so fascinated and shocked by the lemons. She tilted her head a little, studying their looks on their faces – which ranged from squinting to being totally freaked out. She couldn't figure out the slightest reason why, so she continued on with her explanation.

"Of course there are many possibilities. Think of all the different flavors that we can make! We are bound to accidentally make an extremely unexpected flavor here or there I'm sure, so if you have any ideas or recipes to come up with please don't hesitate to share and we'll put it on the menu! But for now, Kaede will teach us how to make lemonade smoothies!" Rin exclaimed as she clapped her hands enthusiastically.

The employees stood there overwhelmed, barely paying attention to what their boss had just said and not even half as enthusiastic as Rin was. Their thoughts were still on the lemons and the employees started to grow a great dislike for the obnoxious bright yellow-colored fruit.

Kaede stepped forward a bit, holding the yellow fruit in her hands and started to talk to them, snapping them out of their thoughts about the foreboding lemons.

"Well, ye must know that the first step is to –" but the elderly woman was cut short as the kitchen door was swung open forcefully and a silver-haired hanyou walked in hurriedly as he tried to catch his breath.

"Gomen nesai, I'm sorry for being so late. I tried to get here as fast as I could but my car broke down so I –" but InuYasha stopped dead in explaining his excuse as he locked eyes with Kaede. He froze. The half demon slowly started to speak, his mouth the only body part that seemed to work properly.

"O-Old hag…what the hell are you doing here?" InuYasha managed to say, stunned. Kaede stared back at him gravely and ignored the rude insult.

"I can no longer manage the shrine on me own so I was able to get this job to raise more money." The elderly woman explained to the out of breath half demon.

InuYasha's amber eyes grew wide and started looking around wildly for someone.

"Where is she? She must be here then? Kikyou. She should be working here since she works at your shrine as well. Kikyou! She's gotta be here." His eyes searched around the whole room, shouting and yelling and screaming, looking for whoever he was talking and muttering about.

Finally his golden eyes met a pair of familiar chocolate brown eyes and he walked right up to her, his face practically almost touching the raven-haired girl's face. She blinked furiously, her face starting to burn up at being such a close distance with this strange boy.

"You! So, _Kikyou _what do you think of working with a half-breed, eh? Do you feel like quitting now?" InuYasha growled as he started to throw insults at her through his fangs.

Kagome stood there, trying to figure out what he had just said. She had no idea what he was talking about. But for some reason something was telling her that he was somehow familiar and that they've met before.

It was hard for her to think though or try to remember who he was – because her bright brown eyes wandered all the way to the top of his head where his _absolutely adorable _furry cute dog ears were. It took a lot of her will power to resist the temptation to reach out and just tweak them.

"InuYa-" Kaede started to plead with him but the furious hanyou cut her off.

"Stay out of this, old hag!" The half demon snapped at her, his amber eyes glancing at Kaede and then back to staring fixedly at Kagome.

"So, what do you think _Kikyou_. Come on, am I not good enough for you to even talk to me? I dare you to say something, _Kikyou_!" InuYasha shouted, emphasizing the last syllables with a scoff.

This guy was getting on the raven-haired girl's last nerves with the whole mistaken identity thing and insults. She had just about enough of him.

"Listen, you. I'm not who you think I am! My name's not _Kikyou_ – my name is _Kagome_. KA-GO-ME!" The girl screamed back at him, her hands on her hips in frustration. They were both having a major staring contest until Kagome's bright chocolate brown eyes became wide, a look of sudden realization dawning upon her.

It all of a sudden made sense to her – the golden amber eyes, the long silver hair, the rude and obnoxious shouting and insults.

"Y-you're…THAT JERK! YOU'RE THAT JERK AREN'T YOU?" Kagome blurted out, her index finger pointing at him in accusation. The half demon squinted at her and stared at her very closely – studying her. After finally sniffing her for confirmation, he quickly jumped back and suddenly had a rude awakening and realization himself – his amber eyes wide in disbelief.

"And y-you're not Kikyou. YOUR THAT WENCH, AREN'T YOU!" InuYasha replied in response.

Then, all hell broke loose.

Both the raven-haired girl and the amber-eyed half demon started going at each other's throats…

"YOU'RE THE JERK THAT BUMPED INTO ME!"  
"NO, YOU'RE THE ONE THAT GOT IN MY WAY WENCH!"  
"AND ANOTHER THING, MY NAME'S NOT WENCH. IT'S _KAGOME_!"  
"I DON'T CARE, YOU MADE ME LATE! I GOT DETENTION BECAUSE OF YOU!"  
"YOU MESSED UP MY REPORT! AND I'M NOT THE ONE WHO ARGUED WITH THE TEACHER!"  
"BUT YOU ARE THE ONE WHO PINNED ME TO THE FUCKING TREE, DIDN'T YOU?"  
"THAT WAS AN ACCIDENT! YOU THREW A POINTY SHARP ARROW AT ME PURPOSELY!"  
"MAYBE I WOULDN'T HAVE THROWN AN ARROW IF YOUR AIM DIDN'T SUCK SO MUCH!"  
"LISTEN YOU, I WAS STRESSED OUT BECAUSE _SOMEONE_ RUINED MY LIFE!"  
"I CAN'T BELIEVE I THOUGHT THAT YOU WERE KIKYOU! SHE WAS DEFINITELY MUCH CUTER, SHE SMELLED A LOT NICER, AND SHE HAD A LOT BETTER AIM THAN YOU'LL EVER HAVE!"  
"WELL THEN THIS 'KIKYOU' WOMAN MUST HAVE BEEN MINDLESS IF SHE WAS WITH AN EGOTISTAL, RUDE, MORONIC JERK LIKE YOU!"

And while that was going on, the violet-eyed boy saw that this was the most opportune moment…

(_loud slap_)

"AH, HENTAI!"  
"It was worth the pain…"  
"ARGH! You are such a lecher!"  
"And you are such a beautiful creature! I cannot keep my hands off of you!"  
"…"  
"Beloved Sango, where are you going?"  
"Away. Far, far away from you."  
"The distance will only increase our love. Do not run away and deny it!"

But before Miroku could run after Sango and grope her once again, InuYasha stood in his way and started to beat the poor violet-eyed boy senseless.

"I TOLD YOU NOT TO SAY TAIJIYA'S NAME LIKE THAT!"  
"INUYASHA, STOP IT YOU'RE HURTING HIM!"  
"WELL HE DESERVES IT WENCH!"  
"I TOLD YOU, IT'S NOT WENCH, IT'S KAGOME. _KA-GO-ME_! GET IT RIGHT, YOU IDIOT!"  
"AHAHAHAHA, BEAT HIM A LITTLE HARDER TAKAHASHI!"  
"SANGO-CHAN!"  
"WELL HE _DOES _DESERVE IT!"

Rin looked worriedly at her employees – who were all fighting and arguing with each other. She was happy that they seemed to be so…lively and energetic. She just needed them to exert their energy towards smoothies instead of each other. How hard can that be, right?

"Listen up, everyone!" she shouted, but her attempt was useless. Her loud voice was barely heard over their screaming voices.

This was definitely going to be a lot more difficult than she had expected.

But the young girl was willing to try again as she took one deep breath.

"I SAID, LISTEN UP!" She screamed, her incredibly loud voice being heard by the teenage employees – who froze from the shock of such a loud voice overcoming their arguments.

Rin beamed brightly at her success and cleared her throat – glad to know that she had her new employees' full attention on her.

"Gomen nesai. I'm so glad you all have been acquainted with each other already!" Of course, Rin said this half-heartedly since she now wasn't too keen on the idea of them knowing each other – especially since it seemed as if they were all on bad terms with one another. She smiled a not so reassuringly smile at them nervously as the employees gave death glares to one another (well, not exactly since Miroku was giving Sango a look of love).

"Miroku and…" Rin turned towards the silver-haired hanyou with a questioning glance.

"InuYasha. InuYasha Takahashi." The half demon bowed politely as Rin bowed down excitedly, her cinnamon eyes lighting up at his last name.

"Takahashi? You mean…_THE_ Takahashi?" Rin exclaimed as she squealed like a young schoolgirl. Sango and Kagome were clueless to what she talked about – but they noticed InuYasha start to shift uncomfortably.

"Well, y-yeah…" InuYasha said nervously, looking down. Even though he was mentally preparing himself for all of the questions his boss was surely going to ask about his father's corporations, Rin had other things on her mind.

"Oh yeah, I just remembered! I am so sorry to hear about your sick grandmother! You must be so brave to go back and save her when your house was on fire!" The young naïve woman said sympathetically as she patted the confused half demon on the shoulder. InuYasha caught a glimpse of the two wenches falling animatedly and saw his perverted friend smiling proudly.

'_I am going to KILL Miroku.'_

InuYasha had to thank the idiot for covering up for him.

But that didn't mean he couldn't kill him later for making up such a ridiculous lie.

InuYasha just nodded solemnly, glaring at Miroku the whole time as their boss started wiping at her face from the tears that were now starting to form. She quickly took a handkerchief and blew her nose while the two girls rolled their eyes – this was unbelievable.

"Okay, well now that we have everyone uh…calmed down, I'm going to ask Miroku and InuYasha to please get changed into your uniforms now!" Rin said lightheartedly, her moment of sadness and sympathy replaced with her usual bright and cheerful mood.

The silver-haired hanyou and dark-haired boy followed her orders reluctantly as they got their uniforms and walked towards the employee's room to change.

The two other female employees were too disgruntled and upset to say anything to each other – their thoughts fuming at the two infuriating boys that had just left, while the elderly priestess and young woman exchanged worried glances at each other.

They waited for the two employees to change in a silence full of tension.

* * *

After ten minutes or so, the two teenagers arrived with their uniforms on (InuYasha kept picking at his uniform while his nose wrinkled in disgust, while Miroku seemed tolerant by the bright colors of the uniform). Rin studied all of her employees worriedly. 

InuYasha looked like he was going to kill someone, his claws flexing every once and awhile while his golden amber eyes were darting all over the room – probably trying to look for an escape. Sango had the same expression on her face, except for the fact that her pink-shadowed eyes kept a watchful eye on the dark-haired boy. Miroku for some odd reason looked strangely happy, with a goofy grin on his face that he might as well be prancing around in a meadow filled with sunflowers and daisies. Kagome on the other hand looked like she was fuming, too deep in her thoughts to realize that her brows were furrowed so that she had a scowl on her face – her bright chocolate brown eyes were fierce.

Rin cast a '_please-do-something-before-they-all-kill-each-other_' look towards the elderly priestess woman with her pleading hazel eyes. Kaede sighed and finally gave in. She cleared her throat loudly to cut the silence and make herself known. Once she was sure that she had all of their attention she picked up a lemon from the table.

"The first trademark smoothie drink that I will show ye all how to make are lemonade smoothies. They are not difficult to make and a lot easier than the more complicated recipes – but that will wait till later on in your training." Kaede picked up another lemon and started cutting wedges.

"You all have probably heard the saying, '_When life gives you lemons…_'" The elderly woman started to say as she started dropping the lemon chunks into a blender. Even though she knew that this joke would be horribly corny, she decided to say it anyway just to lighten up the mood – the tension and silence was so thick that you could cut it with a knife.

But everyone was off in their own thoughts, not noticing the silence or tension at all but instead thinking of the old saying Kaede was talking about.

Of course, they all had their own answers to that saying.

-----

'_When life gives you lemons, your ex-love and the girl that looks exactly like her will take your lemons away and squirt lemon juice into your eyes!'_ InuYasha thought bitterly as he started to flex his claws some more, wishing terribly to kill someone.

'_When life gives you lemons, throw them at the rude, incredibly idiotic, jerk who has no manners to even help you pick up your history project, and not to mention who calls people 'Kikyo' and 'wench!" _Kagome thought angrily as she crossed her arms in defiance, still not forgiving him for how he had single handedly made her life so miserable – no matter how cute his adorable puppy dog ears were and how much she wanted to touch them.

'_When life gives you lemons, make a hot boiling pot of lemonade stew and dangle the pervert over his death while he begs for mercy!' _Sango thought humorously, smirking to herself at the thought and how much she would enjoy seeing the lecher squirm.

'_When life gives you lemons, somehow make them into a crafty protective shield for your love who is truly crazy about you and is even willing to smack you every day just to let you know it!'_ Miroku thought hopefully, with a pathetic love-sick smile on his face as he stole a glance at his beloved.

-----

"But my saying is – when life gives you lemons, you make lemonade smoothies of course!" Kaede said halfheartedly as she received no response for her 'clever' saying (of course, with the exception from her boss Rin – who laughed politely but also did it halfheartedly).

The elderly woman studied her employees, who seemed to be lost in their own thoughts and were barely even paying attention to her now. Kaede just shook her head as she just continued making the lemonade smoothie, giving up entirely on trying to explain to them how to make it. The old woman thought to herself quietly as all of them stood there in silence.

These young teenagers had a whole lot of lemons that they had to deal before they could start making lemonade smoothies.

_

* * *

To Be Continued… _

**

* * *

**

**Author's Note:** This has to be my favorite chapter so far! I loved writing it -- especially the scenes where they're all arguing, and the last part where they're all thinking about ways to use lemons! I hope it wasn't too long though. I absolutely promise that the next couple of chapters will be filled with fluff, now that I've got all this technical stuff out of the way (the characters, the smoothie shop, etc.)! While I was writing about Kajuu Juusuu's, I really wished it was a real place! Don't you?

_Next Chapter -- "How to Make an Osuwari Smoothie" _

Thanks for being so patient everyone!_  
_**Please don't forget to review!**

**_Until next chapter!_ **-- **AK-J.**


	4. How To Make An Osuwari Smoothie

**Last Chapter on Isn't Life Juicy: **Rin Meirou, the owner of the hip new smoothie shop _Kajuu Juusu's_, has mixed feelings about her young employees. She's glad that they're all so energetic, but she's not so sure about all of them already being acquainted with one another. It seems all of them were on bad terms to begin with: Kagome Higurashi and InuYasha Takahashi have disliked each other before they even met. -- and their best friends, Sango Taijiya and Miroku Houshi, aren't getting along very well…or maybe it's just that Miroku is getting along with Sango _too well_. They're causing a lot of trouble for Rin and the manager, Kaede Imouto. But they'll have to learn to work together because Kajuu Juusu's is about to open!

**

* * *

Author's Note:** Here it is -- the long awaited chapter for Isn't Life Juicy? I am so sorry for the long wait, but so many things had been keeping me from writing. School, friends, family -- the usual. I wasn't even sure that I was ever going to update this! But I've been finding myself with some free time this summer, so hopefully I could start writing again and start to finish up this fanfiction -- because that's really what my true goal is: to completely finish a story that I've written. So many times I've given up, started new stories, or just completely abandon a story. But there's something about this story that motivates me to continue writing -- and that's what I want to do. So here it is, finally -- the second chapter of Isn't Life Juicy? I really hope you enjoy reading it as much as I have enjoyed writing it.  


**Disclaimers:** I do not own InuYasha or any of these characters.

* * *

A n I n u Y a s h a F a n f i c t i o n

**Isn't Life Juicy? **

_An Alternate Universe Pairing Fanfiction_

Kagome & InuYasha – Sango & Miroku

**By Aienkien-Jitsuni

* * *

**

Isn't Life Juicy?  
**CHAPTER TWO**  
_How to Make an Osuwari Smoothie

* * *

_

The air was filled with tension around the Sengoku Jidai Outlet Mall. Colorful and attractive flyers were scattered all around the city and many people were anticipating the arrival of the mall's new soon-to-be hot spot: **_Kajuu Juusu's_**. Rin Meirou couldn't possibly wait. As the energetic owner of the smoothie joint, she was just itching to open the glass doors and announce to Tokyo that they have arrived -- with smoothies! The wait was practically torture for her because, in just a couple of hours, all of the work, sweat, and tears that she had put into the smoothie business was going to finally pay off and all come together. She could just imagine it…

_The smoothie shop was buzzing with all of its customers -- some were ordering and some were sitting in bright red stools against the window, while others sat in the comfy lime green couches of the seating area. Everyone was smiling, satisfied and pleased with their smoothies. The lively, multicolored lights brightened up the whole atmosphere of the shop -- and everyone seemed happy and content, sipping on their Passion Fruit Smash Iced Tea Drink or their Lemonade Smoothie. The kitchen and the front counter sounded busy, with blending sounds and…_

"**_YOU JERK!_** You messed up this whole batch of strawberry smoothies! Now I have to do it all over again!"  
"KEH! Like hell anyone would drink one of _your_ nasty smoothies."  
"ARE YOU KIDDING ME? InuYasha, how many smoothies have you made!"  
"…I've made a lot."  
"I meant smoothies that were DRINKABLE?"  
"WHAT D'YA MEAN? THEY _ARE _DRINKABLE!"  
"If you call VOMIT-COLORED smoothies drinkable…well, then I'm not surprised."  
"YOU BITCH! I am more than happy to let you know that many people have tried my damn smoothies!"  
"Uh…yeah…and threw up!"  
"WHAT ARE YOU TRYING TO SAY WENCH?"  
"I'm saying that they took one sip of your smoothies, ran away, and were screaming at the top of their freakin' lungs -- 'THEIR POISONING US WITH EVIL SMOOTHIES! EVERYONE WILL DIE FROM THESE! RUN AWAYYYYYYYY!' _That's _what I'm trying to say. I mean, I can't believe you didn't even hear that with your dog-demon ears!"  
"…KEH! You're still a wench!"  
"YOU INSUFFERABLE JERK…how many times do I have to say it? **_IT'S KAGOME. KA-GO-ME!_**"

"C'mon guys, this isn't the time to fight! We've got customers here…and you're causing a scene…actually a lot of them have started staring at you guys."  
"My darling Sango is right! We must put aside those differences and embrace each other!"  
"AHH! HENTAI!"  
**_(Smack!)  
_**"I was only doing what you told them to do, my lovely Sango!"  
"I DIDN'T TELL YOU TO EMBRACE MY BACKSIDE!"

…and the sounds of four employees scaring all of the happy customers away.

Rin was an optimist and always thought positively in situations like this. But still, she couldn't help but worry about her employees and whether or not the opening day for Kajuu Juusu's was going to be a success or end up in an utter and complete failure. Her co-workers after all were a half-dog demon that needed a crash course in anger management and in manners, an opinionated girl that you'd be afraid to get in an argument with, a perverted hentai that couldn't keep his hands off of anything that had breasts, and a tough girl whose strength of a mere smack will send you flying.

They had to be the strangest bunch of teenagers that Ms. Meirou had ever seen.

And even though that was true -- she had to put all of her faith and trust in them…  
Because really, no one else did.

* * *

Kaede Imouto expertly eyed just the right amount of sugar and quickly added it into the mix of chopped fruits, berries, and herbs. She then added a couple cups of crushed ice and finally blended them all together with the switch of a button. 

The elderly woman suspiciously looked from one side to the other. She was working in the main part of the shop, while the rest of the other employees were working in the kitchen.

It was quiet…_too quiet._

And then, as if on cue, an argument could be heard from shouting, to yelling, and name-calling (things like "wench!", "you jerk!" and "It's Ka-go-me!" -- Kaede even swore she could even hear some growling coming from the half-demon). Loud clangs and noisy crashes started to erupt out of nowhere. Kaede winced at the thought of them ruining the smoothie shop's kitchen, which was most likely what they were doing at that moment. Then, as things finally started quieting down (probably because the girl and the hanyou ran out of breath from all of the yelling), there was a loud smack sound and a shriek of "HENTAI!" Before you know it, it all started up again.

Kaede rubbed at her temples because her head was throbbing. She was way too old to be babysitting a bunch of teenagers. She sighed heavily and pondered on how she could fix this problem. The opening of Kajuu Juusu's was tomorrow, and even though she had been training them for two weeks, she still wasn't sure if they were going to ever put aside their differences -- let alone pull this off. Naturally with Kaede being a shrine priestess, she would have had faith in everything and everyone, regardless of the situation. Yet the old miko couldn't even muster up any ounce of faith from within her -- and when a priestess, or any religious figure that's basically required to have faith in everyone, gives up on you. Well, you're screwed.

So Kaede gave up and clamped her hands together.

She closed her eyes and deeply prayed with all of her heart.

She prayed that she would somehow find a babysitter for them.

The elderly woman desperately needed one.

But as she was pleading with Kami-sama, she overheard (well, not really because they were screaming) a little bit of -- surprise, surprise -- yet another argument from the girl and the half-demon.

"_ARGH! You are such an annoying dog!_"  
"_WHAT DID'YA CALL ME WENCH?_"  
"_Well, you ARE a half-dog demon. I think that title serves you well!_"  
"_You bitch…why I should…_"  
"_Should what? Fetch this spoon? GO INUYASHA! FETCH THE SPOON!_"  
"_OOOOOH SPOON! I mean…YOU WENCH!_"

Kaede's prayers were answered and joyous tears were streaming down her eyes. Her headache went away and she finally felt determined to solve this problem, now that she was finally enlightened.

She quietly thanked Kami-sama and smiled to herself while working on her next smoothie. The elderly priestess knew she wouldn't find a babysitter for her teenage employees, but she had something better for them anyway…

* * *

"Oh Dear Kami-sama…" Rin sighed to herself exasperatedly. She watched helplessly as a blender exploded -- with a main hanyou at fault and a pink lemonade smoothie mess all over the infuriated raven-haired girl's face (how the half-dog demon managed to blow up the brand new blender…Rin would never be able to figure out). 

The usually vibrant woman was all out of energy -- and it was only an hour or two after they had just opened, _Kajuu Juusu's. _Due to all of the hype and advertising, the grand opening was actually going pretty well, even better than what both Rin and Kaede had expected.

Any person who had just opened up their own business or shop would love to be able to say that their first day of opening was a success. Rin would have loved to celebrate, to relax even. If only Rin didn't have to worry about her own employees.

She stared at InuYasha and Kagome, arguing for the 57th time that morning. Rin didn't even know it was even possible for two people to dislike each other that much, let alone argue that many times. Then she glanced at Miroku and Sango, who were supposed to be working the cash registers -- but they were too busy physically touching each other (the pervert kept groping her, while she slapped him in the face) to actually give the customer the right amount of change.

Rin probably had spent more time keeping an eye on her own employees than her customers. But maybe she should be more grateful -- at least the customers weren't running away like in the nightmares she had last night. They were actually having a good show out of it (they even gave tips for when InuYasha and Kagome started fighting, or when Miroku groped Sango and got punched in the face for it).

Rin found Kaede walking towards the arguing couple. 'Thank Kami-sama! Maybe those two will finally quiet down a bit…I wonder why she's carrying a beaded-necklace?'

The chestnut-eyed woman stopped wondering, tucked her wild black hair behind her ears, and started to get back to work. She was mentally and physically exhausted, and yet she still had a whole day's work ahead of her.

But with her never failing optimism, she looked on the bright side of things.  
At least _Kajuu Juusu's _didn't burn down to the ground.  
And with the kind of employees she had…

Well, she should just thank Kami-sama that she was so lucky.

* * *

Kagome Higurashi was the unluckiest girl in the world. 

She was failing history.  
She hated her job.  
Her face was covered in pink lemonade smoothie gunk.

And it was all because of that unbearable, intolerable, arrogant, self-centered **JERK**!

"_INUYASHAAAAAAAA!_" The raven-haired girl screamed at the silver-haired hanyou, who covered his puppy dog ears from the volume of her voice.

"WHY THE HELL ARE YOU SHOUTING!" InuYasha growled back at her as he gently massaged his throbbing ears. Kagome screamed in frustration as she pointed at her sticky, smoothie-covered face.

"YOU SEE _THIS_? _THIS _IS ALL_YOUR_ FAULT!" Her chocolate brown eyes were fierce -- and were burning holes right though the half-dog demon.

"_MY _FAULT? IT'S NOT _MY _FAULT THAT _YOU_ WERE STANDING THERE IN THE FIRST PLACE! YOU COULD'VE BEEN STANDING ANYWHERE ELSE, BUT NOOOOOOO YOU HAD TO STAND THERE. _THAT_," InuYasha pointed at the pink lemonade goo on Kagome's face, "IS ALL_YOUR _FAULT!"

"YOU HAVE GOT TO BE KIDDING ME! INUYASHA, LOOK AT MY FACE!" Kagome could not believe this guy -- was he really serious? What kind of lame excuse was that!

"I'M LOOKING AT IT! HOW COULD I MISS IT! IT'S _THE UGLIEST_ THING I HAVE EVER SEEN IN MY LIFE!" InuYasha shouted back at the raven-haired girl, clearly not accepting responsibility for his actions (or prepared for the consequences of his actions).

Kagome had just about enough.

The raven-haired girl grabbed a couple of stray strands of silver hair from the hanyou and yanked them real hard.

"OW! WENCH, WHAT WAS THAT FOR?" InuYasha screeched in pain but Kagome ignored him as she gave him a brown-eyed death glare.

"Listen here, you thick-headed, egotistical, dim-witted **JERK**…" Kagome said this in a low, creepy murderous voice that sent chills down the half-dog demon. InuYasha gulped as the girl's grip on his hair became tighter and tighter. He was done for.

"For THE last and final time, my name is _Kagome_…_KA_-_GO_-"

"Kagome. I think that's enough torture for now." Kaede Imouto said calmly as she gently removed Kagome's hands from InuYasha's hair. Kagome was stunned by the interruption while InuYasha was grateful for the old hag's presence for once in his life.

Meanwhile, in the background, the customers that served as an audience were deeply disappointed with the interference -- but gave the two teens a tip anyway since it was a good show while it lasted (though they were really looking forward to Kagome murdering InuYasha).

Kagome quickly started bowing down profusely while apologizing. "Ms. Imouto -- Gomen nesai! I'm so, so sorry for having that kind of unacceptable behavior! It's just that --"

"InuYasha is immature and intolerable? Ye should not worry about it, my child. Besides, I find that to be perfect behavior -- especially around him." Kaede said kindly as she put a comforting hand on the girl's shoulder. InuYasha's gratitude toward the old woman immediately disappeared.

"What did you say old hag?" InuYasha questioned the manager rudely, but she just ignored him as she pushed the two of them into the kitchen.

* * *

In the kitchen, Kagome and InuYasha were staring at two orange concoctions on the stainless steel counter. 

"What the hell is this?" InuYasha inquired Kaede again in the same disrespectful manner -- but she stood there calmly and seemed unfazed.

"T-This is uh…a new smoothie recipe I tried out and I wanted both of ye to be the first to taste test it!" Kaede stammered slightly, covering it up with an ol' innocent eye-patched smile. The two teenagers didn't notice.

"I'm parched! I'm sure this is just another one of your delicious recipes, Ms. Imouto!" Kagome said politely as she took the glass thoughtlessly. InuYasha eyed it suspiciously.

"Keh, it probably tastes like crap!" The half-demon said crudely, but nevertheless he took the glass and sniffed it -- Kaede thought she was done for, since InuYasha had such an amazing dog-like ability of sniffing things out -- but she was relieved when he finally took a long, hypocritical gulp of her orange smoothie mix.

After both of them had finished the orange drink, Ms. Imouto had started to chuckle maniacally -- amazed at her own brilliance. She even started to do a little victory jig around the two teenagers, who didn't even know what they had just gotten themselves into.

"**_BWAHAHAHAHAAHAHA_**-**_breathe_**-**_HAHAHAHAAHAHA!  
YE FELL FOR IT, YE DIMWITS!_**"

But of course, that was in her mind.

Still, she couldn't help chuckle at them. The two oblivious teens looked at her, curious to what she was laughing at. One certain teenager was more vocal than the other about it.

"What the hell are ya laughing about, old hag?" InuYasha inquired ungratefully. Kagome just tilted her head to the side a bit, wondering as well what their manager was chuckling at. Kaede just smiled and suddenly pulled out what looked like a large, beaded necklace.

"…" Kaede just continued smiling smugly, waiting patiently for their reactions.  
"…" Kagome had no idea what it was -- but had never seen such a smug old lady before.  
"…" InuYasha was just speechless for once in his half-demon life.

Kagome was finally the one who spoke up.

"Uh…that's nice jewelry you got there, Ms. Imouto." Kagome said pleasantly, trying to get a conversation going. She was as clueless as ever.

"It is, isn't it?" Kaede said, still grinning like a crazy old lady. "It used to belong to someone I know...and put him in his place. I've decided to give it back to him."

"…" InuYasha still wouldn't say anything.

"Oh, well…it's really great and everything…but what has it got to do with us?" Kagome asked again. Poor girl, she was still lost.

"Well, it has everything to do with you two." Kaede said, beaming.

"…" InuYasha couldn't fully comprehend the situation.  
"…" Kagome couldn't fully understand what was going on.  
"…" And Kaede was just fully enjoying the whole thing --  
In fact she hadn't had this much fun in years!

"So…" Kagome didn't know what to say.  
"…"  
"(_smirk)_"  
"…" InuYasha wasn't saying a thing.  
"Err…"  
"…"  
"(_grin)_" Kaede just kept on smiling.  
"Um…"  
"…"  
"Err…"  
"(_smile)_"  
"Well.."  
"**_WHY THE HELL ARE YOU HOLDING THOSE GODDAMN ROSARY BEADS FOR!_**"

Finally, Kaede had gotten the reaction she had been waiting for while Kagome had jumped at the sudden change in nature of the hanyou. He was quiet for so long and she didn't expect such a sudden shout like that.

The elderly woman chuckled again while she held out the beads toward the half-dog demon, who quivered in fear and took protection in hiding behind Kagome.

"Not so brave now are ye, InuYasha?" Kaede taunted as she kept teasing the cowering hanyou. "When Kikyou were here, ye were ecstatic when she gave you the necklace!"

"YOU AND THAT DAMN NECKLACE STAY THE HELL AWAY FROM ME! GOT THAT OLD HAG?" InuYasha shouted to her, but he whimpered with fear as soon as Kaede got within three feet of him. Soon Kaede started to chase InuYasha all around the kitchen.

Kagome stood there for awhile and tried to figure out what was going on.  
And all of a sudden she burst out laughing.

It was hard to concentrate while a fearing half-dog demon was being chased by an old lady with a beaded necklace. Kagome really wished she had a camera with her or something, because what she saw was truly_ priceless_.

InuYasha noticed the girl laughing, and soon his face turned a bright shade of red, which made Kagome laugh even harder. "HEY WENCH! WHAD'YA LAUGHING AT!"

Kagome covered up her face and tried to suppress her laughter -- but it wasn't working. "Because…you're running away from an old lady…_WITH BEADS_! AHAHAHA!"

She couldn't contain herself anymore and she totally lost it.

"SHUT UP, WENCH!" InuYasha was sorry he had even asked and he felt his face was about to melt off from embarrassment -- **but hell**, he was _not_ going to let that old hag near him with that necklace. Kikyou did it to him _once_, and he was _not_ going to let some wench look-alike do it again.

Totally abandoning the wench as protection, he ran outside the kitchen and out the door, with his manager hot on his trail.

* * *

_Kajuu Juusu's _was a mad house. The smoothie place was packed with customers -- students, infants, kids, adults, elderly -- customers of all ages. Not to mention there was a long, messy line due to the incompetent teenagers that were working the cashier register, who were too busy with each other than with the customers (although the customers were pretty much enjoying the whole spectacle with the pervert and the pissed-off girl). 

It didn't help that there was a hanyou running all over the place with an old lady chasing him with a bunch of beads.

Kagome saw all of this when she walked out of the kitchen -- and was immediately tempted to laugh her head off, but then she got a glance of her boss running all over the place -- completely overwhelmed and completely exhausted.

Trying to fix everything, Kagome immediately tried to solve the whole InuYasha-Kaede-Beads situation. The trouble was that she could hardly get over to them since they kept moving all over the place -- and they were pretty skilled at moving through the crowd. Kagome was even impressed, but she was determined to get them to stop. So after moving through a group of college kids, impatient adults, a bunch of highschool students, a table of elderly people, and rowdy group of little kids who were running all over the place, she finally reached them and tapped her manager on the shoulder.

"Hey, Ms. Imouto! How come InuYasha is so scared of that beaded necklace anyway?" Kagome asked, stopping her elderly manager in her tracks. InuYasha didn't miss the opportunity and quickly got away. Kaede sighed and turned to her young employee.

"Well, ye see this rosary is what can keep that half-dog demon in his place. When I put this around his neck, he will never be able to take it off." Kaede explained to her slowly.

Kagome understood and took the necklace from her, ready to put it around InuYasha's neck but Kaede put a hand on her shoulder before she could go anywhere.

"Ye must listen. Ye see…I had put a spell in the orange smoothies you two had drunk -- linking you two together." The elderly woman explained guiltily.

"YOU WHAT!" Kagome shouted in disbelief -- how could she be linked together with an arrogant jerk like InuYasha!

"Well, ye see…you two had been fighting quite a lot. I had decided that I would bring out this necklace again to put him back in his place -- so that maybe you two would stop fighting and arguing all the time."

Kagome was ready to pull out all of her raven hair in frustration, but she nodded, reluctantly defeated. They both couldn't do anything about it since they were in this crazy mess already -- it was too late to do anything now but to try and just go along with it.

"Okay, Ms. Imouto. What do I have to do exactly since I'm linked with that baka?" Kagome said unwillingly, still resolved to figure this out once and for all.

"For starters, ye have to get this necklace around his neck. Then, ye must say a word -- any word that would restrain him. Do ye understand?" Kaede said, offering the necklace to the teenage girl.

"Yes, I do." Kagome nodded her head solemnly and took the beads into her hand. Then she turned around to find the hanyou standing smugly on the other side of the room. Kagome had to get through all of the same people that she had before to get to him.

She took deep breaths, and went for it.

She pushed through the group of college kids, angered some of the impatient adults as she walked through them, practically ran over the bunch of highschool students, and almost trampled over the table of elderly people.

"**_Oh shit!_**" InuYasha had noticed her just as she had reached him. Kagome almost had him -- until the group of rowdy little kids saw her and decided that it would be fun to jump on her.

"**_ATTACK HER!_**" The leader of the noisy bunch said to his other little demonic friends and soon tiny arms and hands were grabbing a hold on her and jumping on top of her.

Kagome was nearly fed up but her brown eyes were filled with fierce determination, and just as she was about to fall with little kids grabbing onto her, and just before the half-dog demon escaped from her grasp, she slammed the necklace around his neck and shouted to everyone in the room, since she was practically sick of it all --

"**_OOOOOOOOOOOOSUUUUUUUWARIIIIIIIII!_** "

There was a big thud sound while Kagome landed on the floor with a bunch of brats sitting down on her. "**_AUGH! GET OFF OF ME!_**" She shouted at them. They quickly obeyed her and ran towards wherever their parents were. She was fed-the fuck-up.

"**OKAY, THIS ISN'T A PLAYGROUND! PARENTS SHOULD KEEP A HOLD OF THEIR KIDS, GOT THAT!**" Kagome shouted at the crowd of people in the smoothie place, nodding their heads because they weren't sure what she would do if they didn't.

"**AND ALL OF YOU -- IN ONE SINGLE FILE LINE PLEASE. WHAT KIND OF PEOPLE LINE UP IN A MOB FORM?**" The raven-haired girl shouted at the people who were supposedly waiting in a line. All of them soon fixed themselves up -- and there was one, long organized line. A voice behind the counter started to speak.

"Uh…Kagome? Aren't you getting just a little carried away…?" Sango asked carefully.

"**_WELL EXCUSE ME SANGO, _BUT ATLEAST I'M NOT GETTING CARRIED AWAY WITH A CERTAIN PERVERT INSTEAD OF ACTUALLY WORKING. I MEAN, WE WOULDN'T HAVE THIS LINE IF YOU GUYS WERE ACTUALLY TAKING THEIR ORDERS!**" Kagome scolded her best friend harshly. The customers were obviously getting a good show out of this and responded with a collective "Ooh!" Sango's face turned a dark shade of scarlet and cursed under her breath. Miroku smiled, rubbing it in -- but Sango punched him in the face partly because her best friend was right and partly because it was his fault.

"**AND WHAT'S ALL THIS TRASH ON THE FLOOR, PEOPLE? WE'RE NOT RUNNING A MAID SERVICE HERE! THAT'S WHAT THE TRASH CANS ALL OVER THE PLACE ARE HERE FOR.**" Everyone immediately checked under the tables and on the floor for trash and threw it away -- and soon the place started to look nicer and not like such a mad house anymore. Kagome smiled sweetly, obviously happy now that everything was fixed.

"Now that wasn't so hard now, was it?" The raven-haired teenager asked the customers dangerously, and everyone immediately agreed with her.

"Good! Now if all of us will just sit down…" Kagome said, grabbing a chair for a little kid to sit in.

"NO! I don't want to!" The little boy shouted angrily, and Kagome's sweet brown eyes pierced right through him. The crowd just shook their heads, "Poor little boy…" they said to themselves, and quickly ducked under the tables for cover.

"I SAID **_OSUWARI!_**" Kagome shouted at the boy. Then, somewhere near the back of the room, there was this big thud sound as someone slammed down to the ground. The person struggled to get up.

"WHAT THE HELL WAS THAT FOR WENCH?" InuYasha shouted as he tried to get the beaded rosary necklace off. Kagome's eyes lit up at the sudden realization of what one word could really do. Completely forgetting about the little boy, who was probably going to have nightmares of evil monsters with raven hair and scary brown eyes, she skipped merrily over to the struggling hanyou.

"What did you call me, dear InuYasha?" Kagome beamed innocently. InuYasha stared at her incredulously.

"Are you deaf? I called you wench, you-"

"**_Osuwari!_** " Kagome interrupted.

InuYasha didn't even finish up his sentence as his face slammed down into the checkered floor. Kagome giggled like a little kid as she said the same word over and over again -- she was practically singing it.

"**_Osuwari!_** **_Osuwari!_** **_Osuwari!_** **_Osuwari!_** **_Osuwari!_** **_Osuwari!_** **_Osuwari!_** **_Osuwari!_** **_Osuwari!_** **_Osuwari!_** **_Osuwari!_** **_Osuwari!_** **_Osuwari!_** **_Osuwari!_** **_Osuwari!_** **_Osuwari! _****_Osuwari!_** **_Osuwari!_** **_Osuwari!_** **_Osuwari!_** **_Osuwari!_** **_Osuwari!_** **_Osuwari!_** **_Osuwari! Osuwari!_**" The raven-haired girl sang, showing no mercy towards the half-demon.

"Uh…Kagome Higurashi?" Rin approached her dangerous employee cautiously, who seemed to enjoy causing pain and misery _way_ too much. Kagome smiled sweetly, obviously unaware of her surroundings.

"Yes, Ms. Meirou?" The teenager said sweetly. The name of her boss snapped her back into reality. "Oh, yes -- Ms. Meirou?" Kagome stopped smiling and was now back in her 'normal' less crazy state.

"I would _really_ love to thank you for getting _Kajuu Juusu's _all organized and everything -- except for the fact that you've basically scared all of our customers and yelled at and even tortured your own co-workers." Rin explained, smiling nervously. Kagome looked around her, and a lot of the customers were hiding, some of the little kids were crying, and InuYasha's face seemed permanently glued to the floor -- he was unconscious by the look of it.

"_Gomen, gomen, gomen nesai!_ I am _so, so sorry_ Ms. Meirou!" Kagome started to bow incessantly and apologize like crazy. "I swear, I absolutely swear this won't happen again. I don't even know what had gotten into me! Onegai…please, I'm begging you --just don't fire me!"

Rin looked down at her employee with a surprised and shocked look.

"Why, I wouldn't dream of such a thing! Who do you think I am?" Rin put a comforting hand on Kagome's shoulder and looked at her with kind chestnut brown eyes.

"Uh…you're my boss?" Kagome answered for her, still unsure of her fate. Rin laughed as she tucked her wild, untamed black hair behind her ears.

"I am, aren't I?" Rin chirped absentmindedly, "Well, I wouldn't fire you of course! You just helped me out a ton by putting all these customers in their place and all." Rin said gratefully. "Besides, I'm pretty much sure no one would ever apply here, so you four are all I've got!" Rin added as she quickly went into the kitchen. Kagome wasn't sure if she was kidding or not, but all the customers nodded their heads agreeing with her.

Rin then came out with a batch of familiar orange smoothies. "Since this is the grand opening of _Kajuu Juusu's, _FREE Complimentary Orange Smoothies on us!" The young woman beamed merrily as everyone cheered and clapped with congratulations. No one even heard the old manager's protest, since her ancient accented voice was drowned out by the noise.

As soon as everyone tasted the delicious orange concoctions, everyone was wondering the same thing. "What are these called anyway?" a voice somewhere in the room inquired. Rin turned her head to Kaede.

"These are great, Kaede! Expected to be, of course. But I'm wondering myself -- what are these scrumptious orange mixtures called?" Rin inquired curiously as she sipped her smoothie. It really was delicious.

"It might as well be called the Osuwari Orange Smoothie." Kaede said not-too excitedly. Everyone in the room was confused, except for Kagome who had fully understood why. It didn't sound half-too bad either -- it had a sort of ring to it, actually.

"Argh…man, did that hurt like a _bitch_!" InuYasha said, rising up from the dead. The half-dog demon was practically clawing his way up, grabbing onto some customer's table. But before he could even stand, someone asked a question.

"Why is it called 'Osuwari' Orange-" but before that person could fully finish asking the question, InuYasha ended up right on the floor again. Someone else said 'Osuwari!' and then another, and then before you know it the whole room was filled with 'Osuwari's!' and InuYasha's thuds.

Rin walked over to the elderly manager who was sitting there, watching the whole thing, and shaking her head regretfully. "Kaede, what happened?" Rin asked worriedly. She needed all of her employees, and at this rate InuYasha was probably going to die from being Osuwari-ed. The raven-haired employee was also wondering the same thing and joined her boss and manager. "Ms. Imouto, I thought it was only supposed to link me to InuYasha? How come the spell is working on everyone else?"

"Ye see that was the test batch I made. I didn't think anyone else would drink it so I left it in the refrigerator. The spell would only last for a little while on everyone else, of course. It only permanently links the first two people who drink the smoothie." Kaede explained carefully as she looked at the slowly dying hanyou. "Though I do feel sorry for the lad. Didn't mean for everyone to drink that smoothie concoction that I had made."

So the boss, manager, and employee watched helplessly as the customers slowly killed the half-dog demon -- and who were also having a grand time doing it.

Who knew causing a single hanyou so much pain was so much fun?

* * *

Miraculously, InuYasha had survived.  
And unfortunately for the customers, the spell had worn off for them. 

Eventually the Osuwari Orange Smoothie had become a hit -- and Rin decided to make it one of _Kajuu Juusu's _signature smoothie drinks, although she had to ask Kaede not to include the strange spell ingredients in there for the safety of her employees.

But it was a hit nevertheless, even without the spell ingredients, and it quickly became the most popular drink and was the most sold out smoothie flavor of the day.

InuYasha absolutely hated the infamous smoothie drink because whenever some curious customer wondered why it was called Osuwari Orange Juice Smoothie, Kagome was never too shy to tell them why and demonstrate it just for them. Soon it became known around the whole mall that the Osuwari Orange Juice Smoothie was "The Drink that Could Sit the Hanyou!"

Rin was more than satisfied with the results of the grand opening of the smoothie shop, _Kajuu Juusu's_. She was ecstatic about its quickly gained success and how wonderful it was that everyone seemed to enjoy all of the smoothie flavors and the shop.

But before she could bask in the glory of her delightful achievement, she took a look at her four employees.

A pervert who couldn't keep his hands to himself, a physically powerful girl who gets pissed and injures the pervert a lot, a raven-haired girl whose fine and dandy one second and can turn into a tyrannical dictator the next, and a crude half-dog demon that cusses a lot and is now under the spell of the emotionally unstable girl.

Suddenly, Rin realized that they were _her_ employees.  
And that she was going to be stuck with them for a long, _long _time.

Was it too late to find new employees?

"_My Darling Sango…_"  
"**(smack)** **_HENTAI!_**"  
"_YOU WENCH!"  
_"**_OSUWARI!_**"

Most likely.

* * *

_To Be Continued…

* * *

**Author's Note: **So what did you all think? I really hoped you liked it because I worked hard on it -- even though I haven't written in awhile. It was a lot of fun writing this chapter. I tend to make Kagome a pretty crazy character in my stories, but she does get really into it and hopefully I don't make her __too_ crazy that she goes OOC. But anyway I'm planning on writing the next chapter soon. The next chapter will have some Sango and Miroku romance in it, for all you S+M lovers, since this chapter was basically about Kagome and InuYasha's relationship -- so I'm really going to enjoy writing it!_  
_ **

* * *

Author's Review Reponse Corner  
Hopefully I'll get many reviews once this story gets going -- but I have gotten some pretty good reviews that I've really wanted to respond to lately. **

**Review By ****Pick 'n' mix**** 2006-04-04 -- on Chapter 3  
**_"I love this story - it's so original. o The idea of a smoothie shop is ingenious. I salute you. XD  
Just to say - I didn't realize there would be so much interaction between them at school too... Hmm... if you want my advice, it seems to take the focus off the smoothie shop a little - which is meant to be the main focus, right?  
Great job though on the third chapter - I loved it. Your writing gets better and better with each chapter, and the 'When life gives you lemons...' bit is great.  
And the ending - I know I'm raving a little, but it's so hard to find such original stories - is brilliant.  
Your ending line: 'These young teenagers had a whole lot of lemons that they had to deal before they could start making lemonade smoothies.'  
It's such a good wrap up - humourous, suggestive of what's to come, and it really makes me happy! o _

Ganbatte on your next chapter - I'm looking forward to it!"

This review is probably one of the most helpful reviews I've ever gotten on It really is helpful, because picknmix is telling me to focus more on the smoothie shop -- which this chapter does. But eventually the characters will start to change and be put into events and situations that are outside of the smoothie shop as the story progresses. Since the first couple chapters take place outside of the smoothie shop, which were really important elements of the plot, I plan to take the characters beyond it. But I'll try to keep focused on the smoothie shop -- that was such a good point.

* * *

Thanks for being so patient everyone!_  
_**Please don't forget to review!**

**_Until next chapter!_ **-- **AK-J.**


	5. Flavor of the Week

**Last Chapter on Isn't Life Juicy: **Somehow, _Kajuu Juusu's _had seemed to survive its first grand opening day and remain in tact -- with a great amount of success, in fact. All it took were a couple of Osuwari orange smoothies, a potent concoction the smoothie shop's manager, Kaede Imouto, had made. Thanks to her, Kagome Higurashi can now finally put the half-dog demon, InuYasha Takahashi, in his place with a simple sit command.

As for Rin Meirou, _Kajuu Juusu's _store owner, she has now finally gotten over that her four employees are all slightly deranged. She doesn't know whether to be thrilled or miserable with the success of her store -- because now she's officially stuck with them.

It won't be too bad working with: a pervert, a physically strong pissed-off girl that injures the pervert every two seconds, a half-dog demon that is forced to follow the command of a girl who seems to be emotionally unstable and enjoys causing pain and misery to others, and an elderly lady who loves to concoct strange spells up and test it on her own employees -- right?

For her sake and personal health, Rin really hopes she's right.

Too bad she's oblivious to the drama that's bound to happen in her very own shop.

* * *

**  
Author's Note:** It took me all night to figure out what exactly I was going to write for this chapter -- because although I made a storyline and plot and everything for this story, I didn't really go into detail what this chapter was going to really be. Hopefully this chapter turns out well. I really hope you all enjoy reading it -- just as much as I have enjoyed writing it! 

**Disclaimers:** _I do not own InuYasha or any of these characters._

* * *

A n I n u Y a s h a F a n f i c t i o n

**Isn't Life Juicy? **

_An Alternate Universe Pairing Fanfiction_

Kagome & InuYasha – Sango & Miroku

**By Aienkien-Jitsuni **

* * *

Isn't Life Juicy  
**CHAPTER THREE**  
_Flavor of the Week_

* * *

**"I wish that I could make her see,  
****She's just the flavor of the week.  
****She makes me weak." **

-----

_Breathe in…  
Breathe out…  
Concentrate_...  
_Do not lose your focus. _

C'mon Sango girl,  
_You can do this…  
__You can do this… _

_You've only punched that damn pervert in the face a million times.  
__Why should this be any different?  
__This is not at all any different.  
__You just can't kick the crap out of him.  
__That's all… Perfectly fine.  
__Besides, I've beaten guys twice his size and way better than him…  
__This should be a cinch…All I have to do is -- _

_WHAT THE HELL, IS HE GOING TO REACH FOR MY ASS AGAIN!  
__IN THE MIDDLE OF A MATCH?  
_**_THAT HEEENTAAAAAAAIIII!_**

Everyone in the room gasped as Sango Taijiya lost her first Tai Kwon Do match.  
The person that was even more surprised than Sango herself was the challenger -- Miroku Houshi.

After a minute or two the shocked headmaster finally regained his composure.  
"Ch-Challenger Two was unable to defeat Challenger One! Challenger One wins this battle!" the Tai Kwon Do Master, Kiuchi-sensei, announced with hesitant disbelief.

No one cheered.  
No one clapped.

They just stared at the girl whose reputation as "The Girl Exterminator" had shattered right before their very eyes.

But the funny thing was, Sango wasn't even worried about any of those eyes…  
Except for the intense azure eyes that were practically seeing right through her.

She didn't understand or comprehend what had just happened.  
She didn't know why she had reacted that way or what bothered her so much.  
She didn't even grasp the fact that Miroku Houshi had simply just gotten under her skin.

All she understood, knew, and grasped was her desire to smack him in the face.

But Sango couldn't even though she so desperately wanted to.  
It was technically against the rules because she lost.

* * *

"YOU _WHAT_?" Kagome exclaimed as both her jaw and the lunch tray she had dropped to the floor. Her chocolate brown eyes widened in surprise as she searched for any sign of dishonesty on her friend's face -- but Sango's expression said it all: she was completely defeated. 

"I lost…I LOST! AUGHHHH!" The dark-haired girl shouted angrily as she balled her hand into a fist. She _really, REALLY_ needed to punch someone -- and fast or else Kagome was going to go flying into the air in a couple seconds.

"I CAN'T BELIEVE THAT I LOST MY FIRST TAI KWON DO MATCH TO THAT…THAT HENTAI!" Sango screamed heatedly as she practically squeezed the life out of her milk carton in frustration. The raven-haired girl started to feel sorry for her friend and the container of milk -- the poor milk carton. What did it ever do to Sango?

Kagome sat there feeling pity for the milk carton, but then suddenly noticed something strange about what her friend said.

"Wait a sec…you lost -- TO MIROKU!" Kagome could hardly even believe that because on a daily basis she _knew_ that Sango could absolutely beat the crap out of him -- and she had even seen it done a couple times right in front of her dark brown eyes. It was just scientifically impossible for her to lose against him. Unless…

Kagome took a huge gulp and a deep breath before stepping into territory that should absolutely NOT be stepped into. She prepared to fly into the air as soon as she looked at her friend with pink made-up brown eyes -- and then asked her the big question.

"Hey Sango…haveyoueverthoughtthatmaybeyoumightactuallylikeMirokuasinlikelikeasinmorethanafriendsortaway?"

Sango glared at her raven-haired friend, obviously annoyed.  
Kagome just closed her eyes, ready for take off.

"Yes, no, maybe -- I don't know! I couldn't even understand a single word that you just said!" Sango answered, irritated at her friend's ridiculous question -- and even just a little impressed. Who knew her raven-haired friend could talk so fast?

Kagome took another breather and had decided this was the best way to die -- at the hands of her best friend. Because once she translated the question for her friend, she was positively going to get strangled. She even said a little goodbye speech in her head.

'_Well world…it was nice knowing you. Goodbye forever to my family, and friends -- especially Sango, without whom my death would never been possible. I'm especially going to thank her, for strangling me and all. I'm not really going to miss living…because my life sucked and everything, but I sure am going to miss sitting that insufferable jerk until he was seven feet deep in the ground. Those were good times, good times…_'

As Kagome created the speech in her mind, she asked the question slowly so her friend could understand it. She no longer had any regrets -- since she was going to die finding out the answer.

"What I said was…Sango, have you ever thought that you might actually like Miroku? As in like-like…more than a friend?" When Kagome had finally finished the question, she was glad that she had made up that little goodbye speech in her mind while she had the chance -- because Sango looked like she was just about to _kill_ her.

"Oh…no…you…did **_NOT!_**" Sango hissed as her hands were just about within strangling range of the raven-haired girl's neck. Kagome prayed that she would at least find out the answer before she died.

But surprisingly, her best friend's hands went past her neck -- and straight towards the garbage can that was behind her. Sango stood up and with remarkable strength _hurled_ the tin full of trash at a nearby picnic table on the campus -- just _nearly _missing the heads of a couple girls gossiping.

"You should be glad that I threw that garbage can instead of you." The dark-haired girl sat down proudly, obviously glad to blow off some steam.

Kagome imagined the scattered litter around the ground to be her bloody guts and body parts. It was _not _a pretty picture at all. Boy, was Kagome glad that the garbage can was right behind her…or else, who _knew_ what would've happened?

Don't answer that.  
It was a rhetorical question.  
Kagome didn't even _want _to know.

"So that was an obvious 'no'." Kagome said nervously as she sipped at her soda. Just as she had finished drinking the last few drops of it, she turned to throw the soda can away -- already forgetting that Sango had flung it into a whole other galaxy a couple minutes before. Kagome was still getting over the frightening experience.

"Well of course it was a _no_. What did you think I would say! That I loved him or something? Please, who do you think I _am_?" Sango laughed at the very idea of it -- the thought of it was not even possible! It was the probably the most ridiculous, most unreasonable thing that Sango had ever heard! **_HER LIKE MIROKU?_** Never in a million, billion years! She would never consider him even beyond a friend -- or even a friend for that matter! It was just plain stupid to even think such a thing.

"Gomen, gomen! I was just _wondering, _that's all." Kagome stubbornly crossed her arms and closed her eyes, deep in thought. "But if you ask me, Miroku seems to bother you_ a lot_ more than he should."

Sango's grin immediately disappeared when her raven-haired friend said that. After all, she _did_ have a point -- she still couldn't figure out why the damn pervert bothered her so much. Usually she would just ignore him, but now…something felt different every time she slapped him. Sango had no idea _what exactly_ she was feeling (Extreme anger? Stress? Embarrassment? Indigestion?) -- but all of this thinking made her flustered.

"Well why _wouldn't_ he bother me!" Sango shouted to no one in particular.

Kagome started as her friend yelled. The raven-haired girl thought that the subject was already closed since her friend didn't say anything for awhile -- she never would have guessed that Sango was still thinking about what she said. Kagome studied her as she started to complain about Miroku.

"One, he's a pervert. That's pretty much self-explanatory." Sango ranted on as she held up a finger for emphasis. "Two, he keeps groping me! You'd _think_ the guy would get it after the first couple smacks in the face but _no_, this is _Miroku_ we're talking about -- practically the biggest and most persistent lecher in the world! He just won't give up!"

Kagome thought she was either hallucinating or had some post-trauma brain damage from the brutal trash can incident earlier or something -- because she could not believe her eyes! Did Sango Taijiya just smile?

"Not to mention those lame pick-up lines! Which brings me to my third and final reason -- he's a womanizer. How could he ever stay with one girl if he's always using that same 'Will you bear my children' line to any one belonging to the female species! He's a skirt-chaser and a major flirt! It's repulsive…"

Was Kagome _that _shocked about a tin can full of trash? She definitely needed a cat scan now -- because Sango actually looked a little sad. Her mouth was in a deep scowl, but her pink eye-lined brown eyes were filled with hurt and pain. Kagome knew that although her friend looked all tough and strong on the outside, her eyes practically gave away to what she was _really_ feeling in the inside.

"Besides…how can you go around _saying_ those kinds of things without actually _meaning _them? It's stupid, really…going up to some poor girl like that who might actually _believe_ it." As Sango finished talking, she looked up at the sky in a daze -- her mind drifting off somewhere, completely forgetting how angry she was ten minutes ago.

The dark-haired girl's behavior confirmed Kagome's suspicions. The denial, the jealous attitude, the dazed expression on her face, the unwillingness to admit it -- it was subtle, but Kagome could tell.

Sango had it bad.

For all Kagome knew, Sango probably wasn't even aware of her _own_ feelings. But it totally made sense now -- and had definitely opened her dark brown eyes to the possibility of a cute, new couple. Kagome thought that they were practically made for each other, despite him being a pervert and her killing him and all. And even though she knew Sango wasn't going to like it, Kagome was determined to open up her friend's eyes as well.

"Hey, Sango…" but Kagome didn't even get a chance to say anything enlightening to her best friend, as a couple of girls came over to their lunch table.

"Excuse me, are you Sango Taijiya?" one of the girls asked. The two of them looked very similar to one another with their dark hair and dark brown eyes -- both of them even had their hair pulled back. The taller girl had a high ponytail, while the shorter one had her short dark hair pulled back low.

Kagome looked over to her friend -- who had now snapped out of her daze and back into reality. Her eyebrows were raised and she had a curious expression her face.

"Yes, that would be me…and who might you be?" Sango asked guardedly. It was obvious to Kagome that her friend had never seen or met them before.

"I'm Suzuna and this is my sister, Satina." The taller girl said, pointing to her sister next to her. "We sat at the table over there where you had apparently felt like flinging the garbage can at."

"Oh…Gomen nasai. Sorry about that! I really wasn't aiming at you guys and I didn't mean for it to be so close to hitting you guys in the head." Sango apologized abashedly. Embarassed, she pointed towards the raven-haired girl sitting next to her. "It was mostly her fault though."

"Yeah, it was…" Kagome agreed absentmindedly, not really paying attention to the conversation. Then after a moment, she responded with a delayed reaction to the accusation. "Wait, what!"

"Well anyway, it _nearly _missed our heads!" Suzuna said, not allowing Sango to forget it.

"But still, it was a really impressive throw!" Satina suddenly exclaimed excitedly. Suzuna glared at her younger sister, embarrassed with Satina's overexcitement -- but as Suzuna turned toward Sango, she looked just as excited as her sister did.

"So it's true then." Suzuna stated as she and her sister looked at each other eagerly, with the both of them exchanging glances. Sango and Kagome were also exchanging looks with each other -- looks of utter confusion.

"What's true?" Kagome asked curiously. She had no idea what these girls were getting at.

"Sango Taijiya! I can't believe it's her -- I'm having a conversation with her! She even almost threw a garbage can at us!" Suzuna said, her personality changing from pissed-off to gushing fan girl in two seconds flat.

"You're _The Girl Exterminator_!" Satina cried out, pointing at Sango like she had just witnessed a celebrity -- which she did in a way. Because to her and her sister, Sango was a role model that they had looked up to ever since she had heard of the girl's reputation as the undefeated Tai Kwon Do champion. Well, undefeated up until today of course.

Sango smiled fakely, not sure whether to be flattered or freaked out. She had never had this sort of attention on her -- usually when people heard 'The Girl Exterminator' most people would be scared of her, not admire her.

Kagome on the other hand just enjoyed watching the show. Unfortunately for her she didn't have any popcorn with her, but she did have the next best thing -- gummy bears. Gosh, did Kagome love her gummy bears.

"So are the rumors true, Great Taijiya?" Suzuna said seriously, staring fixatedly at Sango. Sango nearly almost fell over when she heard how the strange girl had addressed her -- while Kagome was already on the ground, laughing her head off. She even started making up a song for the new nickname, with the tune from that cereal commercial: "**_Taijiya is more than good…SHE'S GRRRRRREAT!_**"

"What rumors?" Sango asked through gritted teeth. She tried her best to ignore her best friend, but it was very difficult to do since she was singing so obnoxiously. Was Kagome _asking_ to be a trash can?

"We heard that you really lost your first Tai Kwon Do match!" answered Satina, worriedly. "Though Suzuna and I think that it doesn't count -- since it was only practice and all."

"But still! We heard that you lost to Miroku Houshi! I mean, we heard he's pretty good and all -- but you didn't _lose _to him, right?" Suzuna asked, hoping that maybe all the rumors around the school were lies.

Kagome stopped singing and looked at her friend, concerned. It was one thing to admit that you lost to a friend -- but it was a whole different thing to admit that you lost to a complete stranger, especially one who admires you.

"Yes, the rumors you heard were true…" Sango said solemnly, looking down at the ground, ashamed. She couldn't believe how fast word traveled in Shikon no Tama High. She was going to rip apart to shreds whoever took part in spreading the news around -- and it was going to be even _worse_ than the garbage can…way worse…she could just see the dead bodies all over campus…

"It's true? Great Taijiya, no!" Satina said in despair. Kagome was really close to bursting out laughing again if the girl didn't look so upset.

"We're a bit disappointed to find out that the rumors are true." Suzuna said, obviously a lot more disappointed than she said she was. "I mean…we know Miroku Houshi is pretty good -- great, in fact. His Tai Kwon Do skills just barely match yours, actually."

"The thing is…we didn't think you'd ever in a million years lose to a guy like _him._" Satina said sadly, her dreams crushed.

"What we mean is…that guy's a bit of a pervert." Suzuna explained.

"He's practically used the same stupid line on all the girls in our class!" Satina said exasperatedly.  
"Something about bearing his child or some crap like that…'  
"You don't even know how many girls refused him…"  
"And how many girls had actually said yes to him…"  
"So many girls have seen him peeping through the girl's changing room…"  
"This girl in my history class said she was going to the bathroom and she saw him there!"  
"He's basically hit on every girl in my homeroom…!"  
"He's even hit on us…I mean the nerve of him, right?"  
"Some even think they're in love with him and think he's going to propose to them!"  
"And we've heard how much of a lecher he is…"  
"I heard that he touched this girl's…"

Sango tuned out of the conversation.  
She had a sudden loss of appetite and a strong urge to cry.  
She hated how she lost her first Tai Kwon Do match…  
And it didn't help how the two girls in front of her were disappointed in her.

She knew that if she had lost to anyone other than _him_,  
She would have hated how she lost a lot less.  
Sango had even figured that it would have been a lot less painful too.  
Even though she didn't exactly understand why.

All she knew was that her chest ached.  
And that it was all that damn lecher's fault.

The last thing she wanted to do was hear two girls talk about him.  
And hear about all the things that he done with girls and anyone of the female kind.

It just really made her want to throw everyone around like trash cans.  
In other words, she was **_really, really pissed off._**

Sango figured that she would take a sip of her milk -- to just do anything that would distract her, but she had forgotten that she had already tortured it a long while ago. Oops.

She turned her head to the side, looking for anything interesting enough to keep her preoccupied. But she realized that was the worst thing for her to do, as she spotted the pervert talking to a group of freshmen girls at some picnic table far off the campus.

Sango's chest ached even more.

She looked around her.  
It was almost like she couldn't escape from him.  
Her best friend that believed she liked him, the two girls in front of her who gossiped about him endlessly, and him -- who was only a couple feet away.

She couldn't run away.

* * *

"_DON'T YOU RUN AWAY FROM ME, INUYASHA TAKAHASHI!  
**I KNOW WHERE YOU LIVE!**_" 

The silver-haired hanyou ran as fast as he could without getting on all fours. He was even surprised that the damn lecher was even keeping up with him. Usually Miroku would have stopped in the middle of the hallway -- distracted by a pretty face or anything wearing a skirt.

But Miroku was _right_ behind him -- he even passed a girl who was wearing a leather mini-skirt! InuYasha could hardly believe his two golden eyes. What the hell was up with him today?

The half-demon wouldn't have minded asking his perverted friend directly, but he _knew_ that the only reason why Miroku was acting this way was because of The Girl Exterminator he was so in love with. There was no way in hell InuYasha was going to listen to all that shit about 'his beloved/dear/whatever Sango' -- he had heard enough and if Miroku said her name like that **one more time**, he was just going to throw up all over his love-sick best friend.

InuYasha's stomach had begun to hurt as he started to run faster. Maybe it wasn't such a good idea after all to order all those chili-cheese dogs for lunch. He had practically inhaled seven of them. He wasn't even sure if had _chewed_ them before he swallowed them. It did seem like a good idea at the time, and InuYasha was starving -- so he thought he might as well…now he wasn't so sure that it was the smartest choice to make…

But InuYasha's thoughts about his lunch choice were quickly interrupted as Miroku started screaming at him.

"INUYASHA! I'M TRYING TO TALK TO YOU! I'VE GOT A MAJOR PROBLEM! **_ARE YOU EVEN LISTENING TO ME?_**" Miroku shouted at the top of his lungs, flailing his arms about dramatically. InuYasha swore he saw the lecher smack a passerby in the process -- he just hoped it wasn't a teacher.

"FINE! IF YOU'RE GOING TO BE THAT WAY…" The violet-eyed teenager, right behind the silver-haired half demon, suddenly jumped on his back -- stopping the both of them in their tracks.

"ARGH, WHAT THE FUCK WAS THAT FOR MIROKU!" InuYasha cursed as he struggled against the tiled floor, trying to get up from the ground. It was no use though because Miroku was sitting on his back.

"_Now_ are you going to listen to me?" Miroku said triumphantly, getting up and doing a little victory dance -- on InuYasha's back. The hanyou wasn't sure what was worse: getting sit by the wench or the lecher doing a jig on your back.

"HELL NO." InuYasha said stubbornly. Even though his back was aching like a bitch, there was no fucking way that he was going to give away that easily.

"I don't think you heard my question clearly. Let's try this again…" Miroku said as he dug the heel of his foot into his best friend's back. Then the dark-haired teen leaned in close into the half-demon's dog ears and took a deep breath.

"**I! SAID! NOW! ARE! YOU! GOING! TO! LISTEN! TO! ME!**" Miroku cried out at the top of his lungs -- right directly into the hanyou's sensitive ears. For a moment, Miroku thought that he had even killed InuYasha. But the half-demon twitched and moved his hand up to massage his ringing ears.

"Fine…I'll fucking listen to you already. Will you just get the fuck off of me?" InuYasha asked, giving in to the treacherous Miroku -- who had responded with a "Glad to!" and a smug smirk on his face. He really could be a bastard sometimes. But still, the hanyou accepted the bastard's hand in helping him up anyway, just because InuYasha wasn't sure if he could even get up by himself.

As soon as the silver-haired hanyou was able to stand up correctly, he noticed that the evil smirk on his friend's face was nowhere to be found. All he saw was a troubled, distressed Miroku -- and his violet eyes that were sparkling with mischief just moments before were darker than ever.

Something was definitely up.

"So what the hell is wrong anyway?" InuYasha asked, genuinely concerned for his friend. Miroku was always so upbeat all the time -- it was just plain weird to see him this way. Usually the pervert got upset with a lot of things, but this was the first time that the hanyou had seen his best friend so depressed. The indigo-eyed boy sighed heavily, which was another non-Miroku-like thing to do -- that's when InuYasha knew it was serious.

"Well…you see…it's kind of hard to explain…" Miroku started off slowly, looking around cautiously at the students in the hallway. InuYasha did the same -- and had found that _all_ of their eyes were staring right at them, particularly at Miroku. They even began to whisper behind their backs as they passed by.

Figuring that they were probably talking about them running around earlier, InuYasha decided to use his keen hearing to eavesdrop on a couple of guys gossiping as they passed by.

"Yeah, dude -- that's the guy!"  
"Are you sure he's the one?"  
"I'm positive it was that perverted guy."  
"Wow…who knew _he_ would be the first one to actually defeat The Girl Exterminator!"

"_YOU WHAT!_" InuYasha exclaimed right after he had heard that little tidbit from the gossiping teens' conversation. Miroku wasn't so shocked that the hanyou had found out -- even without his super sharp dog-hearing ability, he probably would've heard about it anyway. The rumors of him beating Sango in Tai Kwon Do class were spreading around like rapid fire.

"I beat Sango in Tai Kwon Do class…" Miroku said quietly. He wasn't particularly proud of that accomplishment, actually. He was even more surprised than Sango was when he had beaten her --- because it was way too easy. There was something about Sango that was a little off…Miroku just had no idea what.

"So let me get this straight. You, Miroku Houshi, a guy -- that I must admit isn't too bad at Tai Kwon Do -- had beaten Sango Taijiya, a girl that has a reputation as The Girl Exterminator. Not to mention she's an undefeated champion!" InuYasha said, taken aback. He just could not fucking believe it -- he was absolutely stunned.

"I know! This is absolutely terrible! This is just _bad, bad, bad!_" Miroku exclaimed in despair as he took his hands and buried his face in them. He was so miserable looking that InuYasha thought that he might even crawl in a little, dark corner and bawl his eyes out. Miroku was pretty dramatic when these kinds of the things happened.

"Isn't that kind of a good thing? For you, anyway?" InuYasha said, trying to cheer up his friend a little. He didn't want to deal with a depressed Miroku, because before you know it, he's got some crazy plan to fix everything -- and it usually involved dragging InuYasha somewhere he didn't want to go.

"Well, I guess so. I mean, no. I mean…I don't know!" Miroku shouted, throwing his arms in frustration. He scratched his dark-haired head in aggravation. "All I know is that Sango's mad at me."

"Well, she was bound to lose _sometime_. She's just got to deal with it." InuYasha said bluntly. "Uh, and if you didn't notice already…Sango's _always_ mad at you because you keep groping her ass all the time." InuYasha added, pointing out the obvious to him.

"But, this time it's different! She's really, _really_ mad at me!" Miroku said frantically, his deep violet eyes full of worry. "I mean…at lunch, I spotted her while I was talking to a couple of girls -- so I decided to wave to her. And she practically ignored me!"

InuYasha just stared at his best friend skeptically. Was he serious?

The half-demon started to wonder if his friend was just born yesterday or something.

Miroku was a pretty smart guy, intellectual too -- but there were a lot of times when InuYasha just didn't get him.

"Miroku, she _always_ ignores you!" InuYasha said, trying to get the concept through his head. It was strange for the hanyou. Usually Miroku was the one who was trying to make InuYasha understand.

Miroku just shook his head doubtfully at InuYasha's statement.

"No, you don't understand! I _know_ she always ignores me and all that -- and how she always gets pissed at me for touching her and everything…but the look in her eyes. She just looked…like she hated me." Miroku finished, practically whispering the last part. InuYasha didn't know what to say to that, but Miroku started to speak again.

"Besides, she's a good sport. I definitely know that I didn't fall in love with a conceited girl that throws a fit, just because she lost one stupid Tai Kwon Do battle -- it was only practice after all, so it doesn't really count." Miroku said, fully believing it and putting all of that trust in a girl that barely even trusted him.

InuYasha started feeling a little sorry for the pervert.  
But all this talk about his love for her was getting a little sickening.  
As long as Miroku had a solution to solve the problem, he would go back to normal.

"Have you even ever thought about just _talking_ to her about it?" InuYasha said, thinking that it was the easiest solution -- besides, that's all that he could come up with at the moment.

Miroku's indigo eyes lit up and turned a sparkling shade of deep blue.

"**_THAT'S IT!_** THAT'S IT, INUYASHA!" Miroku said excitedly, grinning like a lunatic (which wasn't entirely false, since he acted like one all the time). "That was probably the smartest thing you've ever said during the time of our friendship!" The dark-haired teen was practically jumping up and down and giggling like a little fan girl.

"Thanks." InuYasha said, smirking conceitedly. It was about time that the lecher noticed how smart he could really be at times…

It took a couple of minutes for the hanyou to remember that Miroku and InuYasha were friends since they were in diapers -- and that was a long ass time.

But before the half-demon could get his hands on the little pervert's neck, Miroku had already grabbed a handful of his long, silver hair -- and was dragging him down the long corridor to his goal destination: _Kajuu Juusuu's_.

The school bell was about to ring anyway, but even if it wasn't Miroku would probably skip class and wait there for her. It was the only place where he and Sango _had_ to be there together, besides Tai Kwon Do class -- which meant she couldn't escape. She would have to talk to him eventually, and he was hoping that he would finally get a chance to talk to her directly and find out what was wrong with her. He was really worried about her.

As Miroku happily dragged InuYasha down the corridor, deep in his own thoughts about the beautiful Sango, the half-demon grumpily tolerated his friend's behavior and treatment to him.

'_How did I know that he was going to drag me off to somewhere I obviously don't want to go to? Damn, it's like I'm fucking psychic or something. Goddamn pervert. Well at least he's back to normal. Still, I wish he wouldn't be too cheerful…I mean its bad enough that he's humming -- but now he's practically skipping too! And he's still pulling my hair…Augh! What the fuck? I feel like I'm about to throw up…my stomach hurts like a bitch._''

"Come now, InuYasha -- to Kajuu Juusuu's we go!" Miroku said, nearly skipping down the hallway. The half-demon looked at him incredulously with his amber orbs.

"Kajuu Juusuu's? You have _got _to be kidding me!" InuYasha rolled his eyes, but didn't complain anymore -- since they worked there after all. But the hanyou was just so damn grumpy…he felt so nauseous. He even started to vomit a little in his mouth.

"_TO KAJUU JUUSUU'S -- WHERE ME AND MY BELOVED SANGO, WILL BE REUNITED ONCE AGAIN!_" Miroku said theatrically, determination and confidence evident in his voice and in his shining bright indigo eyes. The pervert looked so positive, that he seemed to be radiating off sparkly pink glitter (when really someone just accidentally spilled some on him -- but nevertheless, it was a pretty good special effect).

Right when Miroku had said, 'Beloved Sango' InuYasha loosened his hair from his friend's grip and ran to the nearest trash can in the hallway -- and threw up.

He really was a fucking psychic today.

The hanyou noticed what a mess he made and started to clean himself up…  
Completely unaware of the huge mess that his perverted friend was going to make.

* * *

"_HOUSHI! STOP DAYDREAMING AND START CLEANING UP THIS MESS!_" 

Miroku snapped out of his fantasies as Sango barked orders at him. He silently obeyed her as he picked up the rag and started cleaning up the table.

His plan was _not_ going the way he wanted it to -- or it wasn't going the way it was in his fantasies anyway (where the beautiful dark-haired girl and he were in a tight embrace, his wandering hand grazing at her bottom).

As Miroku rubbed the cleaning rag into the table in frustration, he snuck a glance at her. Ever since she had come to _Kajuu Juusuu's_ that afternoon, she had given him dirty looks. Not to mention she had suddenly transformed into a screaming dictator. Whenever Sango wasn't yelling at him or ordering him around, she was ignoring him completely.

Miroku fixated his dark indigo eyes on her, hoping to catch a glimpse of her beautiful brown eyes. But her back was turned to him, giving him the cold shoulder. It was like that all afternoon -- and it was now closing time. Was she really that mad about a stupid Tai Kwon Do match?

The dark-haired boy shook his head, trying to shake off those assuming thoughts. His beloved Sango would _never_ be such a bad sport about a simple Tai Kwon Do match like that! But as Miroku stared at her long dark hair, pulled back in a low ponytail, he wondered what on earth could make Sango so mad at him.

He gazed at her back longingly with his desperate azure eyes…

Unable to see how her avoiding dark brown eyes were filled with heartache.

------

"Hey InuYasha! Do you see what I see?" Kagome whispered excitedly to the hanyou as she was peeking through the kitchen door. InuYasha abandoned the sink and the dirty dishes as he squinted through the tiny glass window.

"No…I don't see a goddamn thing!" InuYasha snapped at her. He quickly turned his back at her and started washing the dishes. "Hey wench! Get your ass over here and help me wash these! You have a job too, y'know!"

"_Argh…_Fine! I'll help you wash the dishes already!" Kagome hissed as she huffily put on rubber gloves and joined the half demon in the task. While scrubbing away at the dishes, the raven-haired girl was deep in thought.

"Hey InuYasha…don't you think Miroku likes Sango?" Kagome said softly, leaving the question hang in the air. InuYasha just scoffed at her serious expression.

"That pervert! He's _crazy_ about Sango…literally! I mean, he's practically obsessed with her! She's probably all he ever thinks about -- which is just _sickening!_ I mean if I were Sango, _I_ wouldn't want a pervert to think about me! Talk about nightmares!" InuYasha shivered at the thought, instantly regretting thinking about it for now gross images started to pop up all over in his mind.

If he ever had a pervert like Miroku obsessed with him…  
InuYasha just hoped that the only place _that_ would happen would be in his nightmares.

"Well -- what's wrong with that?" Kagome defended, glaring at the clueless hanyou. She grabbed him by the sleeve and practically shoved his face into the glass window. "Can't you see that he obviously likes her?"

InuYasha carefully studied the two dark haired-teens with his golden eyes. Kagome stood there patiently, waiting for his answer -- having a feeling that he now understood where she was coming from. How could he not? You had to be the most oblivious, dimwitted human being on the planet to not notice how Miroku was looking at Sango!

"What I see is…" InuYasha started off slowly as he narrowed his amber eyes.  
"Yeah…? What do you see?" Kagome said, leaning in closer to the hanyou, expecting him to be more enlightened to the blossoming romance in front of them.  
"All I see…is a goofy looking Miroku and a pissed off Sango." InuYasha concluded.

Okay, make that the most oblivious, dimwitted _half-demon_ on the planet.

-----

Miroku was getting sick of all the silence and tension in the air.

Looking for any thing to lighten up the atmosphere, he searched the room with his azure eyes -- and found a small little radio on the countertop. He reached for one of the knobs and turned it, landing on a station that was in the middle of the song, "Oops I Did It Again" by Britney Spears.

_( **…**_**_Yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah!_** )

Miroku instantly remembered the words to the song, even though it had been a couple years since he had heard it. An idea suddenly hit him -- and he grabbed a banana from one of the fruit bowls on the table. Then as the 'yeah' part was done, he jumped in front of Sango and started to lip sync.

( **_I think I did it again, I made you believe we're more than just friends. Oh, baby. _**)

As Miroku lip synced the words, he saw a look of horror appear on Sango's face.

He didn't blame her. He would be afraid too if someone jumped in front of them and started lip syncing to them with a fruit as a pretend microphone.

( **_It might seem like a crush…But it doesn't mean, that I'm serious!_** )

Miroku was starting to really get into it. Not to mention he was well aware that he looked like a complete moron. But as long as it cheered up his beloved Sango…He really didn't mind acting like a total idiot if it meant bringing a smile to her face.

( **_'Cause to lose all my senses, that is just so typically me. Oh baby, baby._** )

The expression on Sango's face was unreadable -- but Miroku took that to be a good sign compared to the shocked expression on her face seconds ago.

( **_Oops!...I did it again! _**

**_I played with your heart, _**

**_Got lost in the game. _**

**_Oh baby, baby. _**)

Nearing the grand finale of the song, he jumped onto a nearby table and started pouring out his heart to Sango.

( **_Oops!...You think I'm in love. _**

**_That I'm sent from above.  
I'm not that innocent._** )

The song finished out and Miroku looked up, expecting to see Sango cracking up at the sight of him. But she wasn't laughing. Miroku didn't know what she was feeling, because she was staring down at the black and white checkered floor, with her dark brown bangs covering up her eyes and most of her face.

"S-So Houshi…is that how you feel?" Sango said quietly. Not noticing her quivering voice, Miroku just chuckled softly.

"Of course that's how I feel!" Miroku said lightheartedly, glad that Sango was even talking to him instead of barking orders at him. _Of course _he felt like dancing on tables and lip syncing horrible songs for her! That was all for her and that was what he felt. Wasn't it obvious?

The hanyou wasn't the only one who seemed to be clueless.

* * *

Sango stood there silently as her dark brown eyes stared straight down at the checkered floor tile. She felt the bright citrus-colored walls of _Kajuu Juusuu's_ close in all around her. 

How could that pervert be so _cruel_?

It was hard enough to see him flirt mindlessly with other girls, sweet-talking them and using the same old used up pick up lines. But to stand there and watch him parade himself right in front of her -- lip syncing a terrible song that translated his true feelings perfectly to her. It was almost like he was playing some awful joke on her.

Sango got the message after the first, 'Oh baby, baby.'  
God, she felt like a total and complete idiot.

Another song blasted out of the small radio, except this time it was a rock song.

( **_He don't know anything about her…_  
****…_I wish that I could make her see,  
_****_She's just the flavor of the week... _**)

Looking up at him for the first time that day, she stared straight into his brilliant azure eyes, with tears threatening to spill from her own eyes.

Before she knew it, she couldn't control herself anymore.

"I'm just some '_flavor of the week_' to you, aren't I?" Sango cried out at him as she ran towards the storage room, trying her best not to cry and show him how really hurt she was.

* * *

"I'm just some '_flavor of the week_' to you, aren't I?"  
_"Aren't I! Aren't I? Aren't I…" _

Miroku stood there, her words echoing repeatedly in his mind.  
He couldn't shake off the image of her beautiful dark brown eyes.  
Glaring at him, disgusted with him…_Hating_ _him._

Miroku stood there, her words echoing repeatedly in his mind.He couldn't shake off the image of her beautiful dark brown eyes.Glaring at him, disgusted with him… 

Allowing a minute for his mind to process what had just happened, random images flashed past his eyes: him beating her earlier in Tai Kwon Do, her glaring at him when he was with a bunch of girls, the gossiping whispers of students, her unreadable expression when he was lip syncing to her, the look in her eyes and the words she had said…

( **_It's Friday night and she's all alone  
_****_He's a million miles away…_** )

Suddenly regaining his senses, Miroku ran towards the storage room. While turning the knob of the door, he found that it was locked.

"Sango! SANGO! Please, just open the door!" Miroku pleaded desperately as he beat on the door with his fists.

Miroku had finally figured out what Sango's problem was.  
Her problem was _him_.

( **_Yeah, she's the flavor of the week, She makes me weak … _**)

* * *

"Wow...Miroku really screwed things up." InuYasha murmered as he grabbed a handful of strawberries and munched on them carelessly. They were a great substitute for popcorn, which the hanyou had a craving for all of a sudden. He was getting a good show out of this. 

Kagome smacked his silver-haired head.

"_Ow! _What the fuck was that for, bitch?" InuYasha cried out, spitting chewed up strawberries all over the place.

"Miroku did _not _screw things up…he just…didn't know that's all!" Kagome said defensively, not wanting to admit that the hanyou was right. "Besides, be a little more considerate! He _is _your friend after all!"

"He is?" InuYasha asked mockingly, with a 'no, duh!' expression on his face. The raven-haired girl just slapped him harder.

"Argh! Shut up. You just don't understand anything!" Kagome said, her dark brown eyes absorbed on the dark-haired boy, who was practically beating down the door to get to her best friend.

Kagome dreamily sighed to herself, "Isn't that romantic…"

Even though she was ecstatic with her best friend's new love interest, she just couldn't help but feel just a little bit jealous -- he was trying so hard to get to her, just to apologize! Any girl would want that kind of attention focused on her.

But InuYasha sneered at her, immediately crushing all of her starry-eyed dreams.  
"Keh! If you think being separated by a door is romantic."

Kagome glared at him and put her hands on her hips.  
She had just about enough of this pessimistic, non-romantic jerk!

"Well what would an insensitive idiot like _you_ know about romance anyway?" Kagome said crossly. "Besides, you've probably never had a girlfriend anyway! No girl in her right mind would ever want to date a baka like you!"

In that moment, unwanted memories started to reveal themselves in the hanyou's mind..

_A moonlit night…pale blue cherry blossoms…a sharp pain from an arrow wound in his left shoulder…and the dark silhouette of his ex-girlfriend…with her final words still ringing in his ears…"I hate you InuYasha." _

An overwhelming amount of pain hit InuYasha.

To tell the truth, InuYasha really _had_ started to forget all about that painful night when he and Kikyou had broken up. Ever since he got the part-time job at Kajuu Juusuu's, it seemed less real and more like a distant memory of the past. With each and every passing day, he was able to let go of the past a little more.

But no matter how hard he tried, he just couldn't block the incident completely from his mind. Every once in awhile, when someone or something reminded him of his ex-girlfriend…random and painful memories unburied themselves from the depths of his mind and haunted him once more. Why couldn't he just forget about Kikyou?

It was then that the hanyou looked over at the wench's direction.  
The answer was right in front of his golden amber eyes.

It definitely didn't help when one of your co-workers looked almost exactly like the person that you wanted to forget about. The first time he had met the raven-haired girl, he accidentally mistook her for Kikyou. You couldn't blame him, the two looked almost identical. But after several weeks of working with one another, and unfortunately getting to know each other, InuYasha realized that the wench was a lot…different from Kikyou.

Suddenly a soft, gentle voice interrupted his thoughts.

"Hey, InuYasha…you know I was kidding right?" Kagome asked, her big dark brown eyes filled with worry and concern. '_What is up with InuYasha? One minute he's sneering at me, the next minute he's staring off into space! I mean, he's always making fun of me --- can't he take a joke?_'

InuYasha stubbornly avoided Kagome's worried gaze. "It's nothing."  
'_What else am I going to tell her? Oh, yeah by the way -- you look almost identical to my ex-girlfriend, who dumped me and ripped my heart out? There's no fucking way I'm telling that bitch…_'

Kagome pulled on his silver hair, forcing the hanyou to face her.

"Don't say it's _nothing_ when _something_ is obviously bothering you!" Kagome shouted, staring right into his fierce golden eyes.

That pissed InuYasha off.

"_WHAT THE HELL DO YOU KNOW?_ Obviously I _DON'T _want to tell you anything, so why don't you just leave me the fuck alone?" InuYasha yelled angrily. But he suddenly regretted his infuriated outburst as he saw Kagome's expression. She immediately let go of his silver strands of hair.

"O…O…_OSUWARI!_" InuYasha went crashing down the kitchen floor as Kagome knelt beside him.

"Baka...Baka…BAKA!" The raven-haired girl whispered lividly. The half-demon looked up to find tears welling up in her wide chocolate brown eyes.

"Baka…why do you always have to act so tough all the time? I…I was worried, okay? I'm sorry about what I said earlier…and I'm sorry for being so nosy…I just…you don't always have to be so guarded all the time….I mean…I've never seen you look so sad...But still…Gomen! It's all my fault! I shouldn't have said that childish comment anyway!" Kagome rambled on as tears were threatening to spill from her eyes.

"I-Idiot! It…It wasn't your fault…I shouldn't have yelled at you like that in the first place…" InuYasha stammered self-consciously, unable to hide his embarrassment. God, he was so bad at apologizing and Kagome was starting to make him panic. He _absolutely **hated**_ girls crying. It just made him feel uncomfortable.

Kagome hit him with her fist. "No, stupid! It was _my_ fault! Maybe if I just shut up! But my stupid comment made you all sad and everything…and I _still_ didn't leave you alone!" She was on the verge of sobbing.

InuYasha suddenly forgot all about his ex-girlfriend, memories of the past, and even the heart aching pain he felt -- all that mattered right now was the raven-haired girl in front of him…and to do everything in his power to make her not cry.

"It's fine, alright! It was MY fault…Now just don't cry or anything."  
"NO. It was _my_ fault, InuYasha! I'm so sorry!"  
"What are you apologizing for anyway!"  
"Because I made you sad! And probably caused you a lot of pain! That's all _my _fault!"  
"Well…you did cause me a lot of pain by sitting me all the fucking time…"  
"YOU SEE! IT _REALLY_ _IS_ MY FAULT!"  
"W-Wait! I didn't mean that!"

Kagome's tears started to spill from her eyes and InuYasha froze up.

'_Oh shit…what do I do, what do I do, what do I do, what do I do, what do I do, what do I do, what do I do? Fuck fuck fuck motherfucking shit. Why does she have to be so emotionally unstable and cry like this? Augh…stupidstupidstupid. Do I comfort her! Do I put a hand on her shoulder! Do I run away? WHAT THE FUCK DO I DO?_'

The hanyou awkwardly patted her raven-haired head.

"I said it's alright, Kagome…Okay? Don't cry anymore."

'_Did InuYasha, THE InuYasha, just say my name?_'  
Kagome looked up with glassy bright brown eyes -- but he immediately averted her gaze, completely and utterly embarrassed. The raven-haired girl just smiled in reponse and wiped her tears away.

"You just said my name, InuYasha…" Kagome said breathlessly in disbelief. She silently wondered to herself if some alien had abducted the hanyou's body...or if she was talking to a robot…of if she was meeting his nicer twin brother. Could this _really _be InuYasha?

InuYasha didn't say anything. His face was turning redder by the second. He was blushing so much, that he even started to look like a tomato (a cute tomato with silver hair and puppy dog ears).

Kagome giggled, grateful for InuYasha being so nice to her.  
For once he wasn't being such an obnoxious, insufferable jerk.

"I'm glad…" Kagome whispered, as she suddenly started to pat the silver-haired half-demon's head. InuYasha sharply turned his head and gave her a death glare.

"What the hell do you think you're doing! It's only okay when _I_ do it!" InuYasha protested, trying his best to look like he hated it -- when secretly, he loved it. Damn his dog-like personality.

"I just couldn't resist!" Kagome squealed innocently as she continued to pat his head. InuYasha sat there grumpily tolerating it.

"(_pat_)"  
"…"  
"(_pat_)"  
"…"  
"Good Boy, InuYasha!"  
"Stop that!"  
"..."  
"(_pat_)"  
"…"  
"(_pat_)"  
"…"  
"(_stops patting_)"  
"…"  
"Hey…InuYasha?"  
"What?"  
"Don't you think it's been a little too quiet?"  
"Keh! So?"  
"…"  
"…"

The couple then rushed towards the kitchen door window, suddenly realizing that the incessant knocks on the storage room door had stopped.

* * *

(**_2 AM and she calls me 'cause I'm still awake,  
"Can you help me unravel my latest mistake,  
I don't love him. Winter just wasn't my season"_**) 

Sango unfolded her hands carefully as she stared at the storage room around her. Her back was sitting against one of the walls and she was hugging her knees tightly with her head resting on her arms.

It was hard to believe that she, a girl with the reputation as 'The Girl Exterminator', was hiding in a storage room closet. Yet there she was, sitting on the cold concrete floor -- listening to Anna Nalick's voice coming from the radio outside her door.

(**_'Cause you can't jump the track, we're like cars on a cable  
And life's like an hourglass, glued to the table  
No one can find the rewind button, girl.  
_****_So cradle your head in your hands  
And breathe...just breathe…_**)

The dark-haired girl buried her head in her hands, thoughts racing through her head. She was physically and mentally exhausted -- her head was throbbing and she was all cried out. But as soon as she thought about the pervert, fresh tears came to her sad dark brown eyes.

What was wrong with her?

Ever since Sango had found out Miroku's true feelings about her…something deep within her ached painfully. She was so hurt that she wanted to run away and never see his face again. Yet at the same time, she missed his persistent knockings on the closet door, which had only stopped ten minutes ago.

She just couldn't explain it.

But after much thought and consideration, Sango realized just how stupid she was being. By the looks of it, Miroku had no idea what he had done to her -- except beat her in a stupid Tai Kwon Do match. To be honest, Sango herself didn't even know what he had done to her. She knew that she wasn't angry about losing to him, because although she was shocked herself about the whole thing, she just didn't get mad over those kind of things. After thinking about it in her mind, Miroku was just acting like plain old Miroku…except that whole Britney Spears lip syncing thing. That was just weird.

( **_Here in town you can tell he's been down for a while,_**  
**_But, my God, it's so beautiful when the boy smiles,  
Wanna hold him. Maybe I'll just sing about it.…_**)

A playful smile parted her lips as the image of a flaunting lip syncing lecher appeared in her mind. She quickly wiped away the last of her tears, quickly forgetting her angry feelings and aching heart.

Sango glanced at her watch, revealing that she had been sitting there for nearly an hour -- much longer than she had thought. She stood up and dusted off the back of her work uniform.

( **_There's a light at each end of this tunnel,  
You shout 'cause you're just as far in as you'll ever be out  
And these mistakes you've made, you'll just make them again  
If you only try turning around._** )

'_I should go apologize. I don't even know what came over me. Not to mention these mood swings I'm having…I must be getting my period or something._'

The dark-haired girl ignored the mix of emotions she was feeling and the sharp pain in her chest. As she reached out for the doorknob, Sango suddenly realized how crazy she must've looked to the womanizer -- running away from him and hiding in a closet.

But the lecherous pervert understood perfectly.  
Love makes us do crazy things -- that was practically his motto.

Sango just didn't realize _what exactly _was making her do the crazy things she's been doing lately, that's all…

( **_Woah Breathe, Just Breathe,  
Oh Breathe, Just Breathe,  
Oh Breathe, Just Breathe…._**)

The dark-haired girl took a deep breath and turned the storage room door handle.

* * *

Sango stepped out of the storage room closet, planning on looking for the pervert.  
But she didn't have to -- because he was standing right outside waiting for her. 

"Houshi…" the dark-haired girl spoke softly. For some strange reason she couldn't bring herself to look at him. It was hard to stare straight into his dark azure eyes -- which she felt were fixated on her the second she had come out.

"Yes, My Dearest Sango?" Miroku asked. Even with Sango staring at the checkered floor, avoiding his violet-eyed gaze, she could still imagine the sly smirk on the lecher's face. Not to mention that she wanted to punch him in the face for putting "My Dearest" in front of her name like that -- but she restrained herself.

"I just…I just wanted to say…I wanted to say that…" Sango stammered, struggling to find the right words to apologize. What should she say -- Sorry for running away from you? Sorry for abusing you all the time? Sorry for being an idiot? The more she got flustered, the more self-conscious she started to feel with his eyes watching her.

_'Dear, Kami-sama -- why is this so hard to do!  
__Why does he make me so flustered like this!' _

Sango started panicking.  
She did the only thing that she thought would calm her down…

(**_SMACK!_**)

…And amazingly, smacking the womanizer _really did_ calm her down.

"Ahhh…that's better!" Sango muttered under her breath, her nerves finally relaxed.

"Okay…what I was _trying_ to say was that I'm sorry…really, really, _REALLY_ sorry for being an idiot and for running out on you like that. I didn't know what I was thinking! Oh yeah, and I'm really sorry for smacking you…it was just out of habit I guess."

There, she did it! Sango had finally apologized to the pervert. Now things could go back to normal and she could finally look at Houshi without getting all embarrassed…

But once her pink eye-lined brown eyes looked up, she couldn't find a trace of a sly perverted grin on his face. All she saw was Miroku -- with a red-hand print mark on his face, genuinely smiling.

Even his sparkling azure eyes seemed to be laughing.  
At that moment, when Sango looked up and saw him smiling…  
Her heart started to pound.

But she didn't notice, because a loud up-beat techno song disguised her racing heartbeat ringing in her ears.

( **_I still hear your voice, when you sleep next to me.  
I still feel your touch in my dreams. _**)

Miroku's beaming face disappeared -- and suddenly she felt warm, comforting arms envelop her in a tight embrace.

Sango was speechless.

( **_Forgive me my weakness, but I don't know why.  
Without you it's hard to survive._** )

"Forgive me, Sango…" he whispered tenderly to her.  
That was all he needed to say for Sango to unconsciously grasp onto the back of his shirt.

( **_'Cause everytime we touch, I get this feeling.  
And everytime we kiss I swear I could fly.  
Can't you feel my heart beat fast, I want this to last.  
_****_Need you by my side. _**)

"What are you talking about, Houshi? I'm the one that should apologize…" Sango murmured softly. She could barely even speak. A rush of emotions was overwhelming her…she didn't know what she was feeling. She was just glad that she had her face buried in his _Kajuu Juusu's_ uniform shirt, because she could feel her face burning -- it was practically going to melt off at this rate.

Miroku pulled her closer to him in response, sending a jolt of electricity throughout her body.

( **_'Cause everytime we touch, I feel this static.  
And everytime we kiss, I reach for the sky.  
Can't you hear my heart beat so...  
I can't let you go.  
Want you in my life. _**)

They stood there entangled in each other while instrumental techno beats poured out of the small radio on the table counter. It seemed like Sango's heartbeat was matched perfectly with the beat of the song.

"Sango…you're not a flavor of the week to me…" Miroku said solemnly. He wrapped his arms tighter around Sango, "You're the flavor of my heart."

The dark-haired girl started to shake in his arms -- from laughter.

"Houshi! Do you use that cheesy line on every girl?" Sango giggled as she finally looked up into the dark-haired boy's eyes. Even though she was making fun of him, she truly felt ecstatic. A weight seemed to be lifted off from her, and if Miroku wasn't holding onto her so tightly, she very well believed that she was able to float in midair.

The feelings were mutual -- as Miroku's serious expression was replaced with a beaming smile and dancing azure eyes.

"Hey, give me some slack! It took me almost an hour to come up with that line while I was waiting for you to come out of that closet." Miroku joked. But it really had taken that whole time to think of what he was going to say to Sango -- and he had meant it, even if it really did sound cheesy.

With the both of them smiling in a tight embrace, neither one wanted to let go.  
Until a certain hanyou and raven-haired girl interrupted their moment.

_

* * *

"Cause everytime we touch, I get this feeling. And everytime we kiss I swear I could fly!" Kagome sang excitedly along to the song that was blasting from the radio. She absolutely LOVED this song. _

"ARGH! Can you shut the fuck up?" InuYasha growled loudly as he covered up his sensitive puppy dog ears. He absolutely HATED this song.

Kagome tore her eyes away from the window and glared at the whining half-demon.

"InuYasha! Shut up or they'll hear you!" Kagome tried to shush InuYasha -- not wanting to disturb the beautiful spectacle between Miroku and Sango -- but it just made him even louder.

"Well, I'm glad _they_ can hear! But _I_ _CAN'T_ hear anymore because of your goddamn horrible singing!" InuYasha shouted at the top of his lungs. He was too busy worrying about his delicate eardrums throbbing to notice the dangerous glint in the raven-haired girl's fierce brown eyes.

"_OSUWARI!_" Kagome shouted. How dare he criticize her singing!

"_ARGH…I HATE YOU AND THAT STUPID SONG!"_ InuYasha muttered, his face flat in the ground.

"_OSUWARI!_" Kagome yelled once again. It was one thing to insult her singing voice, but it was a whole different thing to insult one of her favorite songs of all time.

Satisfied with the amount of pain she caused him, she started to walk towards the kitchen door, curious to see what had become of her friend and the pervert. Maybe they were even kissing? She rushed towards the window, wanting to steal a glance but she didn't get that far -- as one of InuYasha's clawed hands grabbed a hold on one of her feet.

Kagome went flying through the air and landed hard on the checkered floor.

"InuYasha! What was that for!" The raven-haired girl gasped, looking back -- to find the hanyou crawling towards her.

"Y-you…bitch…I'll get you...!" InuYasha murmured, his face still planted firmly in the ground. Kagome was impressed -- she was surprised that he could even move, despite the fact that the subduing spell hadn't completely worn off yet.

"_OSUWARI, OSUWARI, OSUWARI!_" Kagome yelled, hoping to stop him in his tracks. But the half-demon kept clawing his way towards her, while one of her ankles was held in a death grip.

Kagome was terrified. What exactly was he going to do to her!  
The raven-haired girl had only one option: to throw fruit at him.

Struggling to get one of the silver bowls of fruit off one of the counter tops, she grabbed a pineapple and chucked it at the hanyou's head. Then she started to throw oranges, apples, mangos…Fruits were practically raining down on the half-demon's silver-haired head.

And then he had finally reached her, his face inches away from her.  
He smirked at the raven-haired girl, giving her a glimpse of his sharp fangs.  
Then from behind, he stretched his clawed hands…

And dumped a whole batch of smoothie on her head.

"Take that, **_Ka-go-me!_**" InuYasha snicked immaturely, admiring his lovely work. It was just priceless seeing the raven-haired girl covered in a berry smoothie mess. Taking another good look at her, the hanyou started to crack up hysterically.

Kagome's fierce brown eyes were ready to kill.

"ARGH! _OSUWARI, OSUWARI, OSUWARI, OSUWARI!_" Kagome shrieked at the top of her lungs, but no matter how much she sitted him he was still laughing (even though it was a little muffled since his face was probably glued to the floor by now). "_OSUWARI, OSUWARI, OOOOOO---_"

A familiar voice suddenly broke Kagome's chain of Osuwari's.

"What is going on here?" Sango and Miroku both asked simultaneously as they stood there in confusion at the scene in front of them. They couldn't figure out why Kagome was covered in a smoothie mess, or why InuYasha's face was practically apart of the floor now.

"Oh shit." Kagome and InuYasha muttered under their breath, both realizing that they were caught in the act (well, Kagome muttered anyway -- InuYasha could barely move any of the muscles in his face since it was stuck in the floor and all).

"I mean…OH! Sango! What could you possibly mean? This is…uh…er… _NORMAL_ Yeah, that's the word! I'm always covered in smoothie and sitting InuYasha at this time….!" Kagome lied horribly. She was such a bad liar, especially to Sango. But it didn't really matter -- she and InuYasha were done for anyway.

"_What the fuck was that? That was the most pathetic lie I've ever--_"Kagome shoved the hanyou's face deeper into the ground, trying to muffle out his criticizing voice and his mocking laughter. He definitely wasn't making the situation any better.

"What he was trying to say…was that we're sorry for interrupting you." Kagome apologized on her knees, begging for mercy from her best friend. But Sango stared at her unforgivingly.

"Interrupting us from what…?" The dark-haired girl asked dangerously, but Kagome didn't get the hint.

"From you and Miroku hugging of course! It was just so cute! I…" Kagome stopped mid-sentence and suddenly realized what she had done wrong.

**'_OH SHIT! I SUCKKK!_' **Kagome thought to herself as she got up and ran past the dark-haired teens. Miroku just stood there watching, amazed at how fast Kagome was running while Sango started to chase after her.

"SO YOU WERE SPYING ON US?" Sango shouted accusingly, ready to strangle the raven-haired girl's neck.

"Spying…is…such….a…harsh…word…Sango!" Kagome gasped in-between breaths, "I…would…say…something…like…supervising?"

"**KAGOME HIGURASHI…YOU ARE DEAD!**" Sango shouted, ready to treat her raven-haired best friend like a trash can.

Kagome ran like her life depended on it -- which was true in a way.

**_

* * *

M e a n w h i l e…

* * *

_**

"So, you guys were watching us weren't you?" Miroku asked of the recovering hanyou, whose face was still attached to the checkered tiled floor.

"Mmmhmmf." Inuyasha responded as best as he could. Miroku just smiled lovingly as he watched his beautiful Sango chase her best friend around the shop.

"You really like her don't you?" The hanyou's muffled voice was hard to understand, but the dark-haired teen understood perfectly what his friend was aking.

"Of course I do!" Miroku said proudly, his bright azure eyes sparkling. He turned his head towards the face-planted half-demon.

"I've never seen you laugh so hard before…ever. I was beginning to think that you were an emotionless void, unable to feel." The dark-haired boy kidded with the hanyou, since InuYasha couldn't do anything about it at the moment. He could hear his silver-haired friend muttering curse words and insults at him.

"But Kagome was the one that was able to make you laugh, something that was even difficult for me to do…" Miroku's playful expression suddenly turned very serious, and even though InuYasha couldn't see it, he could hear Miroku's solemn voice clearly, "You really like her don't you?"

InuYasha didn't respond.  
Miroku didn't expect him to.

'_That's what they all say…_' Miroku thought, smiling all-knowingly while shaking his head.

After their conversation ended in silence, Miroku's serious face was replaced with a mischievous grin -- suddenly getting another one of his crazy ideas.

"Now, if you'll excuse me..." Miroku said to the for once silent hanyou. With a playful glint in his deep violet eyes, the dark-haired boy abandoned his half-demon friend and started to chase after his dearest Sango.

"_MYYYYYY BELOVEEEED SANGOOOOOOO! WAIT FOR MEEEEE!_" Miroku hollered, chasing after the object of his affection.

Sango looked in front of her and behind her.  
The dark-haired girl couldn't make up her mind.  
She didn't know who to kill first -- the nosy best friend or the annoying pervert.

But once she felt the slight graze of a hand on her bottom, her mind was made up in an instant.

"ARGHHHHH! **_HENTAIIIIII!_**" Sango shrieked, as she slapped him across the face and sent him flying into a couple of shelves. She suddenly realized how she hadn't done that in awhile -- and realized just how much she missed it. It felt good to injure the pervert again now that things were back to normal.

Smiling happily, Sango spotted an unfinished smoothie on one of the many tables they didn't clean. All of a sudden, she was struck with a brilliant idea and grabbed it.

"This, Houshi -- is for groping me all the time!" Sango shouted triumphantly as she dumped the smoothie on his dark-haired head. She replayed the victorious moment in her head, mentally saving it in her mind for later.

Suddenly inspired, she seized a handful of fruits from one of the silver bowls on the tables.

"And this…is for beating me at that Tai Kwon Do match we had earlier!" Sango said delightedly, completely satisfied now that she was getting the revenge she had always wanted on the lecherous womanizer.

But, as if in slow motion, she saw all of the fruit she threw -- which was a vast arrangement of apples, pears, and berries of many kinds -- hit an unwanted target, Kagome.

But Sango didn't regret it, realizing that she was chasing after her best friend just moments ago. Kagome had it coming to her, sooner or later. The dark-haired girl reveled in the fact that she had just killed two birds with one stone.

Her triumphant victory was short lived however.  
What Sango wasn't expecting was the wrath of Kagome --  
When that wrath was unleashed, her raven-haired best friend was just plain _scary._

"WHY AM I ALWAYS THE ONE GETTING FRUIT DUMPED ON?" Kagome shouted angrily as she snatched all of the silver bowls of fruit and hoarded them as ammo.

Her fierce dark brown eyes bored holes into Sango.

Once again, the dark-haired girl had no where to escape.  
'_Why am I always the one cornered?_' Sango thought desperately.

And then without warning, she attacked.

"_AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!_' Kagome roared frighteningly as she aimed all of the fruit she was throwing at Sango.

"_NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO! MY DEAREST SANGOOOOOOOOOO!_"

Sango's life flashed before her eyes.  
Something flew at her.  
All was dark…

When Sango's pink eye-lined brown eyes fluttered open, she found Miroku on top of her -- shielding her from the fruit that Kagome was pelting at them.

"Are you alright, my beautiful Sango?" Miroku asked worriedly, his face covered with fruit and pulp. Sango didn't know what to say -- did the pervert really throw himself in front of her…just to protect her from flying fruit?

It was just too ridiculous for Sango to comprehend.

"NO ONE GETS IN MY WAYYYYYYYY!" Kagome cried out as she started spraying smoothies on them. But Miroku wasn't going to give up anytime soon.

"YOU ARE NOT GOING TO GET MY BELOVED SANGOOOO, YOU BEAST!" Miroku shouted out heroically as he started to fight back with fruit.

Sango took a moment to look around _Kajuu Juusuu's_. It was a complete mess: fruits were everywhere, spilled smoothies were all over the place and all over them, tables and chairs were dislocated, and all of their shelves and appliances had practically fallen over. The dark-haired girl suddenly realized that they're job was for them to be _cleaning_ it. It was a total and utter disaster.

Suddenly InuYasha came out of nowhere, finally dislodged from the ground.  
He came in between the raven-haired girl and the violet-eyed boy.  
With a confused where-the-hell-am-I look on his face, he looked at the both of them.

"What the **HELL** are you guys doing? You guys are fucking out of your mind!" InuYasha said in disbelief, not realizing how vulnerable his position was right now.

Silence and tension filled the air.

"_ATTAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAACK!" _Kagome ordered, breaking the silence.  
"What the fu-" But InuYasha wasn't able to finish his sentence.

Before Sango could even warn the oblivious hanyou, it was too late.  
He was already struck down in a couple of minutes.

Sango took one last look at the place and shook her head, completely forgetting about where they were and joining in on the fruit-battling fun.

The four of them were laughing and enjoying the good old fashioned food fight that they were having. It seemed that the fruit-throwing and smoothie-hurling was going to last forever…

"**_WHAT IS GOING ON IN HERE?_**" Rin shouted.

…Until they were busted.

* * *

After apologizing and begging for mercy from their boss, Rin Meirou had forgiven them (she was just glad that she found the place covered with fruit instead of it being on fire). She wasn't even that mad about the whole thing -- she was just completely stunned when she saw _Kajuu Juusuu's._ But after getting over the initial shock, she started to laugh at her employees -- seeing them all covered in fruits and smoothies was just _hilarious_. 

Despite them all laughing about it now, her employees were ordered to clean up the whole mess. It was their job after all and it was what they were _supposed_ to be doing in the first place. Agreeing to stay a lot later than usual, the four employees finally cleaned up the place.

The next day, Rin asked them a question. "What exactly were you guys doing while you were goofing off, anyway?" But she got no response from the embarrassed dark-haired girl, the grinning pervert, the scowling hanyou, and the overexcited raven-haired girl.

Shortly after Rin's inquiring, Kagome came up to her -- whispering the juicy little story eagerly to her boss, informing her on the new relationship that was blossoming right in _Kajuuu Juusuu's_. Rin's chestnut brown eyes were finally enlightened, and the two girls jumped up and down shrieking enthusiastically.

Suddenly inspired with the story that the raven-haired girl had just finished telling her, Rin got a fantastic idea. After purchasing a dry erase board and decorating it with her handwriting and many different colored markers, she displayed it right in front of the cash register. '_Flavor of the Week_' was written in bubble letters on the top, while under it she wrote _Kajuu Juuusu's _new signature flavor: Berrylicious Fruit Fight Mix.

Rin had also decided to install speakers all over the shop, as well as outside -- which blasted all different kinds of hit songs, such as the catchy rock song 'Flavor of the Week' and the upbeat techno song 'Everytime We Touch'. She even played a little Britney Spears from time to time.

Kagome and Rin were definitely the masterminds of the changes in _Kajuu Juusuu's,  
_While Sango and Miroku were oblivious to the significance of them.  
And InuYasha…well, he never knew what was going on anyway.

_

* * *

Breathe in…  
Breathe out…  
Concentrate…  
__Do not lose your focus._

Breathe in…Breathe out…Concentrate… Breathe in…Breathe out…Concentrate… Breathe in…Breathe out…Concentrate… Breathe in…Breathe out…Concentrate… Breathe in…Breathe out…Concentrate… 

_C'mon Sango girl,  
__You can do this…  
__You can do this… _

_Let him think he can get me…  
__Fake to the side…  
__Wait for it…  
_**_AND NOW! _**

Sango swiftly flipped over her opponent's body.  
And just like that it was over -- she had won.

"Challenger One was unable to defeat Challenger Two! Challenger Two wins this battle!" the Tai Kwon Do Master, Kiuchi-sensei, declared.

Everyone cheered.  
Everyone clapped.

Sango Taijiya, '_The Girl Exterminator_', was back.

Everyone's eyes were staring at her, staring at a girl whose reputation suddenly recovered right before their very eyes.

But the funny thing was, Sango wasn't even worried about any of those eyes…  
Except for the intense azure eyes that were practically seeing right through her.

She didn't understand or comprehend why he made her feel the way she did.  
She didn't know why she had reacted the way she did whenever he was around her.  
She didn't even grasp the fact that she might just be in love with Miroku Houshi.

All she understood, knew, and grasped was her desire to smack him in the face.

But after thinking about it for a couple minutes, she suddenly realized that right now she really _didn't _want to smack him in the face for once in her life.

Unconsciously, she was secretly desiring to be held by him once more.  
And of course, he felt the exact same way -- that moment they shared was all he ever thought about now.

But they didn't say a word, communicating to each other with a little smile and a bow, now that their Tai Kwon Do match was over.

Was embracing your opponent lovingly against the rules?

_

* * *

_

_To Be Continued… _

**_

* * *

_**

**Author's Note:** So what did you all think about this chapter? Long, huh? That's what I thought. Honestly I thought that this chapter was going to be way shorter than this, but it ended up being one of my longest chapters yet of '' I have to admit, this chapter gave me of grief -- I had so many difficulties with this chapter and its flow…it nearly drove me crazy! But I'm glad that I finished it. I really hope you guys enjoy this chapter because it took me to complete it! So what did you all think about this chapter? Long, huh? That's what I thought. Honestly I thought that this chapter was going to be way shorter than this, but it ended up being one of my longest chapters yet of '' I have to admit, this chapter gave me of grief -- I had so many difficulties with this chapter and its flow…it nearly drove me crazy! But I'm glad that I finished it. I really hope you guys enjoy this chapter because it took me to complete it!

Oh yeah, before I forget -- I just wanted to get a second opinion…  
**What's Your Opinion: **_Was the chapter too long? Should I split it up into parts? _

I haven't decided whether or not I wanted to split up the chapter or not.  
So it would help a lot if you guys could help me out!

I'm still deciding what's going to happen in the next chapter..but there will be a lot more I& K and S & M fluff on the way! Also, check out the cover art for _Isn't Life Juicy? -- _it's in my profile under the **Expressing My Fanfiction** section. I'd like to know what you guys think of it!

* * *

**Author's Review Response Corner  
**Since this chapter has way too many words in it, I don't want to stretch it out anymore by including Author's Review Response Corner…but I'd just like to show my appreciation and thanks to all those who reviewed the last chapter: the critical and fabulous reviews of **Pick 'n' mix**, the ongoing encouraging support of my most energetic fan **tweakinuears**, and the reviews of animearlinefreak, Kit, Punk Rock Miko2, Kannilala, and InuFilipinaFan -- this chapter would definitely not be here without you guys!

* * *

**Disclaimers: **_I do not own InuYasha or any of Rumiko Takahashi's characters. I also do not own the following songs: "Oops, I did it again" by Britney Spears, "Flavor of the Week" by American Hi-fi,"Breathe (2AM)" by Anna Nalick, and "Everytime We Touch" by Cascada.

* * *

_

Thanks for all of your support!  
**Please don't forget to review! **

**_Until next chapter! _**--** AK-J.**


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